Following my first attempt at competitive (well, timed anyway) running, the Marathon of the North in Sunderland in May, last weekend I ran in the Great North Run. This was described in Wikipedia as the world's largest half-marathon until a recent edit demoted it to second behind Göteborg. Still, it's big. I'd heard some of the… Continue reading The Great North Run
Category: Exercise
Phew!
I'm delighted to be able to say I completed the first Marathon of the North in Sunderland yesterday. I hinted at this in my previous post, but midweek before the race I was feeling terrible—I'd had colds and aches; my last training run on Thursday was stereotypically awful, with bad cramps and a sore right… Continue reading Phew!
Tapering
Marathon training programmes, at least for inexpert runners, seem to follow a common pattern. You increase your distances gradually week by week, peaking with long runs of around three-quarters of marathon length. (Why not longer? I suppose it isn't considered worth draining your reserves completely and risking injury.) Then there's a "tapering" period for the… Continue reading Tapering
A Marathon
The reason for all this running—or at least for running such long distances at a time—is that I've entered a marathon. It's the inaugural Marathon of the North in Sunderland on the 5th of May. Although I've lived in London for years, I come from Durham and I'm much looking forward to a run in… Continue reading A Marathon