30 years of on and off competitive running and training. The last two years or so have been one of the "offs".
I have not had anything much to blog about since early 2013, except disappointment, what I felt might be "running career ending" chronic injuries and my first DNF at a marathon.
That happened in Milton Keynes on May bank holiday monday in 2013. I got to 17 miles or so with ever increasing pain in and above my right knee, and with a lift home and an end to the pain just a phone call away, I eventually pulled the plug. With 2012 such a year of achievement and "glory" I just didn't have anything left to prove. A will power failure, or a bit of common sense for once. In any case I had to actually admit that efforts of 2012, and the lack of any long recovery period, had pretty much left me broken as a runner.
3 days later I bought a new road bike and during the summer I spent quite a bit of time in lycra, successfully keeping my fitness up to a level I found acceptable.
I also had acquired a place in that year's Jungfrau Mountain Marathon the following September. I bit the bullet on that in July, taking advantage of the race's pretty unique facility of being able to "sell" my bib number to another competitor.
I didn't ever completely stop running, but stopped believing that I would ever run that much without pain.
I drifted through 2014 just rolling along with low mileage, no real focus and many long walks with our new dog, Cocoa, doing all the proper mileage. I was getting old, so why worry? Sometimes I went weeks without running. Running never left me properly, I just put it on a shelf.
Around my birthday in October I began to realise that I was about to enter my 60th year. I had blogged in 2012 that my 3:48 effort at the Richmond Virginia marathon had left me with 9 minutes of the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon for my 55 to 59 years age group. I imagined at the time that this was close. Reality suggests that I was miles away. Richmond was a real one off effort, speed wise, run off consistently high mileage in a year full of inspiration. To think I could dramatically improve that time, with no peer support, no fund-raising incentive and carrying injuries was deluded.
And anyway, if I could wait a couple of years, I "gained" 15 minutes!
Each year for the past winters I have played around in the excellent Jantastic competition run by the guys over at the Marathon Talk podcast . (I religiously listened to the podcast while running in 2012 and early 2013 but refused to download it all for most of 2014 as I wasn't "properly" running.)
This year as usual, I joined up in a team (#runteamtwitter) but this year I completed with 100% after the 12 weeks of escalating challenge. OK, I only had goals of 3 runs per week and a longest run of 20 km, but I was getting my mojo back, running-wise, and most importantly I seemed to be avoiding injury for once, most of my runs being offroad. Weight came off, I started to feel better and I have since permitted myself to set some challenges.
I have entered a 14 mile trail race on Dartmoor in May. With a caravan sited about 3 miles away, I have been able to run on parts of the course, and am really looking forward to the challenge again.
Just this week I have convinced myself that the elusive BQ is worth a shot. I have always refused to be limited by my age doing practically anything. In 2014 I finished a science degree with the Open University and started a new business - an artisan bakery. Like Jon Bon Jovi I definitely agree that I can sleep when I'm dead and I am not ready to enter my "third age" just yet.
So I am again avidly listening to podcasts, looking at training programmes, buying new shoes, upping my mileage and wondering what I am capable of in the marathon.
So I entered one, and it is 3 days after my 60th birthday, right here in the UK, traditional and low key.
I have never been to the Isle of Wight anyway so why not run its marathon as a way to tour part of the island?
Target? 3 hours 53 mins and a "safe" Boston 2017 qualification.
Sounds easy. It won't be.
Two cups of tea and a sip of water. Before each early morning run in #year60
Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy
