There I was on a dark December night, deluded after a long drive cross country racking my brains as to how I can go about raising money for a dear friend of mine Tara Llanes. Cast your eyes south and read her story below....Cut a mammoth tail short, I ended up talking to some of my fellow Lucozade workers and low and behold, in mid January, I got news that I had made Team Lucozade Sport and I had a secure place to run the marathon. I was so excited, I know people who have tried for over 6 years to get a place to run in the race!! The excitement soon faded when the reality of actually putting your mind and body though the hours of training and then the actual race set in! Training was nuggets, I had to train up and down the country (As I am usualy away with work) and I trained in the dark in all weather conditions including snow, rain, sun, hail....in The Isle of Arran, the Lakes, most of the major cities, Edinburgh, London, Glasgow, Manchester BLA BLA BLA, you get the picture.
The tredmill helped me loads and I spent quite a lot if time running at a set pace over set distances on the 'milly the treadmill! I got my 10km time down to 53 mins, which ain't bad for a novice!! I found out a lot about running too, did you know that if you wear the wrong panies, your fufu can chaffage and it can fall off? Interesting!! I bet you didn't know that it is not uncommon for people to loose all control of their bowel and soil their panties whilst running? Note...I WAS NOT ONE OF THESE LOOSE BOTTOMED FOLKS!! I did however whitness some shameless shitting en route round the marathon course!! Also, it is not uncommon to need a wee en route, pretty obvious really, considering the average time is 4 1/2 hours and the average fluid consumption is arounf 2L. I am proud to admit to a spot or urban peeing, it was quite releaving actually!! 
The build up to the big day was exhausting. As Lucozade are the title energy drinks sponsor, it was all hands on deck for the Expo! Me and my budding team of Sports Scientists were on hand giving runners last minute advice and tips for 4 days prior to the event! It is the busiest few days of our working calendar, actullay it is a working marathon!! My boss was a peach, he actually forced me to take the day before the event off and a day off it was, long lie in in my hotel and the ole feet were up!! My bro and sista in law took me out for T which was so well needed!!
Marathon day came in a blink of the eye!! There I was in my Team Lucozade Sport kit, all hydrated and well fueled. I past the 2 mile mark, looked over my shoulder and saw my friend Amy! Out of 36'000 folks, what are the chances of that? We ran together until the 25th mile, she was the best running buddy ever!! We also met Blind Dave and his team, he is the most amazing guy! I helped him with his nutrition stratergy and the London Marathon was the last in his 7 marathon challenge across 7 continents in 7 days, the third man in history to complete the challenge...oh, and he is blind!! I was lucky to run the last mile with 4 nativly dressed Massi warriors, they were amazing, they ran with bike tyre style foot covers held on with string. The crowds all the way down the course were 4 deep and the cheers were unreal, it was like a world cup for 26.2 miles!! My whole team waited in the rain at the last Lucozade feeding station at mile 23 to cheer me on, it was pretty emotional!! I swore at a team meeting that if I hit the wall, I would resign! My fuelling was textbook, I felt strong, hydrated and well fuelled the entire way, the only thing that held me back were a few monster blisters and a fat, feeble foot!!
I hope you never experience having to step upto the plate for a friend, but if you do, do something worthwhile, make it count and in the mean time, it is never too late to sponsor me!!
http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com/ XX 
No comments:
Post a Comment