With just one week to go to the New York marathon the clock is ticking and although the prospect feels somewhat daunting I am very excited. It’s good to know the training is complete and all I have to do now is rest, eat well and keep myself ticking over with a few short runs. I am eternally grateful to God to have got me this far as at one point I didn’t think it was going to be possible. My training started in May but in June it all seemed to be going wrong when I picked up a calf injury and soon after Achilles tendonitis. I now know the literal meaning of the term Achilles heal, as every athlete knows that even a small tear of the Achilles tendon takes months to repair. I am grateful to Bob Fudge at Windsor Slough Eton and Hounslow (WSEH) athletic club who after a series of intensive massages and physio, got me running again. It was the middle of August before I was able to get back to serious training and thankfully although not fully recovered the injury didn’t get any worse and actually seemed better after a long run.
After a very slow painful 10 mile run on the 20th August, painful because I was tired after a week at Soul survivor I devised a training plan that I hoped would get me back on track which included a series of weekly runs totalling 45 – 55miles increasing weekly. This included two half marathons a month apart. I kept on track and was able to run my final run of 22.5 miles on the 15th October. This was an amazing feat as at 12 miles I was joined by Steve and Mike fellow runners at the Datchet Dashers running club, who provided me with the support I needed to complete the final 10 miles. Wow!! Isn’t God good, somehow at all the points when I needed encouragement the help was there in so many ways?
As I trained Matt Redman’s new album 10,000 reasons including my favourite track ‘Never once’ learnt at Soul Survivor was ringing in my ear another source of huge encouragement.
So here goes New York in a week’s time and believe or not i am looking forward to it.
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