Furthermore: March 2007

March 21, 2007

Marathon Sponsorship

I’m running the marathon for myself primarily, but I wanted to raise some money for charity too, so I’ve chosen Amnesty International, as I’ve been involved with them for a long time now. I’ve got a JustGiving page up here, or the button below should also link to it.

Thanks in advance to anyone that will sponsor me! Amnesty have been campaigning for the human rights of victims of oppressive regimes for many years, and unfortunately there are still many countries that practice torture, arbitrary detention, and “disappearances” - ie state sponsored murder.

March 18, 2007

Marathon Training

Looking out the window now, it looks like I did well to go running yesterday. Still, it was the toughest run I’ve done yet - my body seemed to rebel from the moment I set off. My left foot had been aching a bit in the week and it started playing up almost as soon as I set off. I think a lot of this was also psychological - all the negative parts of my brain trying to make excuses for me not to finish. Normally it wears off after a while but this time it just seemed to be continuous.

Fortunately, after a couple of miles, my foot felt better and I did have a fairly good run for an hour or so. But I wasn’t even up to 2 hours before I started feeling a bit tired - which is quite unusual.

By 3 hours out I was really suffering, and my right leg almost cramped. Fortunately that kind of made me realise that a big part of the problem was dehydration. I stopped at a random stranger’s house and asked them if they’d refill my bottle (thanks, random stranger). Previously I seem to have got round nearly 20 miles with just 500ml of water and whatever I drank before I set off, but yesterday I just needed more - I had to stop and ask again before I finished.

Anyway, I finally struggled home in about 4.13 (predicting a marathon time of just under 5 hours). I’m pretty pleased I did it, and didn’t jack it in - I think it will really help build some mental toughness for the big day. OTOH, I’d really like to do better than 5 hours on the day, so I need to make sure I stay more hydrated.

I got my pack through from the Marathon telling me where I’m starting and such like. And Amnesty have sent me various sponsorship stuff - I’m going to set up a justgiving site, so it should be available in the next few days - I’m just waiting for some Amnesty bits to customise it.

March 6, 2007

Winding Down

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I don’t seem to have posted for a month or so, and I think that may be a sign that this blog is going out of commission, at least for a while. There may be a new Furthermore when I have something new to talk about, but don’t expect many more updates here. I will let you know how I get on in the marathon though.