An executive decision has been made – I will not be running the Virgin London Marathon 2018.
Ever since my school girl error at The Wokingham Half Marathon on 18 February I’ve struggled. I’ve not been running pain free (I even ran 2 x 20 mile training runs after that event IN PAIN) and I’ve been kidding myself…
So I’ve listened to experts’ advice and I’VE STOPPED RUNNING to let my body heal – easier said than done for some people; but for me at this point in my life it wasn’t a stressful or upsetting decision, a gutting one; but there are other marathons which I can train for and learn from this school girl error.
I can’t defer my place to next year as I had already deferred it from last year….but you know what, THERE ARE OTHER MARATHONS!
So, for now it is time to repair, rehab and rebuild. I have set my sights on getting fit and sorted in time for the Abingdon Marathon in October; which will mean training over the summer months which may be somewhat easier as our most complex Barnes Fitness event, the Woodley 10km & 2.5km will be well and truly over by then. The time and energy involved in organising this event incluing; the traffic management, marshals, course measurement, signange plans, advertising, ordering of race numbers, refreshment provision, port-a-loos/heras fencing, liason with Thames Valley Police/Wokingham Borough Council/Woodley Town Council, organising t-shirts for the pacers, organising a roof rack to be fitted to our Lexus CT200h for the race clock and the list goes on, it is IMMENSE. Most events of this scale would have a committee behind it but Ian & I do this ourselves between us, only because I’m a bit of a control freak underneath it all!!!! So with this event being the week before London Marathon the build up for both events is in parallel – not ideal to say the least!
Fail to plan, plan to fail….I can’t afford to fail at either events, so lets do one properly rather than two not so well. Bring on Woodley 10km – which is supporting the Mayor of Woodley’s Charity of the Year; First Day’s Childrens Charity. They have recently been thrown a bombshell and need to find new premises – see more details here, if you can help or suggest anywhere they would be eternally grateful.