Marilyn Monroe and Tim Ewell in "The Seven Year Itch" (1955) They say that, no matter whether you take up running at 35, 45 or even older, you get between 5 and 8 years when you see improvement almost every time you run and race. Having taken up running again in 2007, about 20 years after leaving it behind at school, and initially targetting a local 10k, I can vouch for that. Within 3 years I'd dropped my time from 47:11 to a 'personal best' of 39:05, matched the following year on a tougher course - and I might have beaten it if I hadn't been knocked sideways rounding a bend on the final 100m by a corner-cutter! My weight fell by nearly 2.5 stone, and I completed several marathons, with my two best in 2010 and 2012. There's no doubt that between 4 and 6 years after starting, I hit my 'sweet spot'. And then it all just got harder. My first real lay off came from running two races on consecutive snowy, cold January Sundays, kicking off a ches
Two events have encouraged me to start my running blog again. One was meeting my dearest friend Jason, who, having emigrated to Melbourne, has really embraced the 'running life', and is inspiring me with his glorious 10k morning runs in wonderful places. Here's a recent photo from his trip to Paris, before coming across to the UK, and a morning run... Secondly, the realisation that I have 30 weeks to the Brighton marathon, and the scales are tipping towards 172 lbs...about 10lbs over my fighting weight if I am going to do well. My running for the past months has been a bit sporadic - sufficient to keep a bit of fitness, but not in any sense 'training'. So...here we turn over a new leaf - I am going to allow 4 weeks of running as I fancy, and then start a 26-week lead-in to Brighton. Key to this is making running more fun, and re-capturing some running 'social', which I have really missed in my London jaunt. Also, making it less of a grind. With th