Wednesday, 3rd March – 53 days to go

Just a recovery run today. I would have liked to go off road to give my feet a bit of a break from pavement pounding but with the recent snow just melted I decide to leave it for now. A gentle three miler around the lanes close to our house is the order of the day. There’s still a little snow in the shady bits and it’s another lovely day.

I wrote to David Bedford race director of the Virgin London Marathon today. They make it difficult for you to write to him, presumably to stop all the nutters, but I found a way through. I tried to stick to the point and not to rant and didn’t use the word “complain” even once. It’s to do with their rules on “good for age” which I feel is both discriminatory and frankly lazy. I have to run 3:15:00 to be deemed good for age. I think this is a tall order and right on the edge of my capabilities. Everything would have to go just right for me to run that fast. Yet it’s the same time for a forty one year old bloke. Worse still, it stays at 3:15 until I get to sixty (if I get to sixty).

If you look at the age graded calcs a forty one year old bloke would have to run 2:55:30 to match my target time of 3:15:00; he’d have to run 2:46 to match a fifty nine year old running a 3:15. This is just wrong. Most rants are clear-the-head, vent-the-spleen exercises which I regard as good for your overall wellbeing. When someone can do something about a thing that you perceive to be wrong I think you really ought to tell them and give them the opportunity to make changes or come back at you with their reasons leaving things as they are. It seems a little ungrateful to be whinging whilst still six and a half weeks from the start, but I’ve got it out of my system now and can move on. The reason I want to be “good for age” isn’t an ego thing; you get allowed back for either of the next two years if you get good for age. If Liz is lucky with the ballot we could then prepare for and run the event together.

The legs are a little wobbly and achy from yesterday’s efforts. The plan for the evening is to listen to Marathon Talk and watch the footy on telly. An alcoholic beverage would be most welcome but I’ll stick to the water. Haven’t really had the urge for a bevy, but it doesn’t seem right watching an evening game on TV without a drink in hand.