My last RRR post was back in June 2016, an attempt to put a brave face
on my Brighton Marathon experience of earlier that year where I had ended up
walking the last four miles and seen my target time of 3h45m disintegrate into
a time of 4h45m.
Compounding the frustration of the injury to my right knee that caught
up with me that day, in my rehabilitation period I developed a separate long
term problem affecting my left ankle.
Numerous consultations, new regimes of exercise and three separate
spells over the following eight months where I refrained altogether from
running finally took me somewhere towards overcoming the injuries and 13 months
after my Brighton disappointment I tackled the Edinburgh Marathon.
In my mind, from mile 16 onwards, the Edinburgh Marathon became the
Battle of Edinburgh as I found myself fighting off a savage attack of “brain
gremlins” determined to bring me to a halt. My recollection of the last ten
miles is that I spent nearly the entire time repeating again and again, “Not Brighton again!” Somehow I forced myself to keep running,
though it was grimly slow and punishing.
While my finish time that day
(4h18m) was notably below my target time, the sense of achievement I felt in the
closing moments was about as great as I’ve ever felt in a Marathon!
Since then it seems that gremlins are no longer my running companions and possibly it seems they may have been replaced by the running gods! So much is this the case that in 2018 I ran four marathons, three of them in personal best times. The culmination of this was at the Dublin Marathon in October 2018 when I achieved a time of 3h41m49s. This was over 15 minutes faster than my PB had been before 2018.
Since then it seems that gremlins are no longer my running companions and possibly it seems they may have been replaced by the running gods! So much is this the case that in 2018 I ran four marathons, three of them in personal best times. The culmination of this was at the Dublin Marathon in October 2018 when I achieved a time of 3h41m49s. This was over 15 minutes faster than my PB had been before 2018.
Finally and unexpectedly I felt near to matching the standard I had
reached when injury saw my Brighton 2016 ambitions go awry. This was further confirmed last month when I
beat the Half Marathon PB I had set in my purple patch of Autumn 2015. I think it fair to say that I not only beat
my PB… I smashed it with a full 80 seconds improvement to reach a time of
1h37m47s.
So I hope I’m ready to step up to my Challenge 2019… Further and Faster! Through the rest of 2019 my aim is to
complete an ultra of 100KM and five marathons, of which in at least one I am
targeting a new PB of sub 3h40m.
In conjunction with my running challenge, I feel it is the right time to
set myself another fund raising challenge.
There are countless charities I would be delighted to support but one in
particular is close to my heart because of the dedication my daughter Carmella
has given to it for well over ten years.
This is Kaira Konko Scout Active Support a charity supporting the people
of Soma in The Gambia.
In my next post I will say a bit more about Kaira Konko and of the work
Carmella did in a recent visit to Soma, just last month. This will be something
of an update from 2015 when I last did fundraising for them and made my own
visit to Soma.
In the meantime, I have my first Marathon of the campaign to run, the
Thames Meander on 9th March. This
I see as a key part of my build up to the Vienna Marathon on 7th
April when I will be aiming for my first sub 3h40m Marathon!
Thanks for reading this and for any support you can give!
My fundraising page can be reached from the link below and I hope to see
you in the miles of running I have ahead!
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnReece
