London Marathon Lean In 2023 – Friday Night 5km
Battersea 5km is Brilliant race. Loaded field, pancake flat. No wind. I get dropped within the first mile.
Coach Ken is cheering me on the best he can;
Keep it respectable Russell!
I can’t.
marathon
London Marathon Lean In 2023 – Village Bakery Half
last year I did this race and finished 2nd. A hamstring tear later, and now I’m outside the top 20, moving backwards. Ego crusher.
Not even halfway, hurting, way off PB pace. There are people ahead of me I would usually expect to beat. We are near the car park now. Come on, let’s call it a day. I’ve had a go. It isn’t my day. Stop this pain, get in the car, go home, regroup for next time.
MY 2023 GOALS…
I am still trying to nail all my 2022 goals (see further below) but am also adding the following:
Winter Paddy Buckley FKT
I reach Rhosydd quarry, fifty miles and sixteen hours in, it is the dead of night. A scary enough place in daylight, where young men worked and died, deep in the hillside tunnels. Slate ruins loom silently around me. The moon shadows play tricks on my eyes, ghosts are closing in from all around.
I’ve reached a crossroads. If I turn right, down the hill, towards my home town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, I could get in my warm, safe bed, and make all this end.
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London Marathon 2022
In the movie Gladiator, the evil Emperor Commodus confronts his nemesis, the noble warrior, Maximus, who is bound in chains. Commodus stabs Maximus in the ribs, then challenges him to a fight to the death.
Maximus is put in armour, to hide the blood, then released from his bonds. The two men are stood on a platform, which is raised from the dark under belly of the stadium up to the brilliant sunlight and chanting crowds of the arena floor.
As the thousands of spectators cheer, they know nothing of Maximus’ mortal wound. He must fight anyway. He reaches slowly for the floor and feels the dirt, steeling himself for battle.
…fast forward two thousand years, and here I am, the modern day gladiator, making my way through the crowds of Blackheath, towards my arena…
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London Marathon Load Up – Aldershot Road Relays
UK runners have been competing in road relays for over a hundred years. It’s a brilliant way to galvanise a team and prove spirit. This week, it was the S.England 6 Stage Relays, 6 runners in a team all running 6km.
I was selected for Kent AC and traveled down to London on Friday, the day before the race. It meant a lot to me, the only member selected who had also run in the 2012 team, when we claimed our only victory in the event. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, this year I have run the slowest 5k time of the A team and actually half the B team…