Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

Health Warning: Very long and very rambling race report ahead. Typing this took nearly as long as running the marathon. My goal for this mar...

Gun time 3:30:09, chip time estimated 3:28:30, I haven't got anything official yet. I've never been in as much pain as over the last...

I had promised not to run on Friday if it was raining. Well, I got up in time, got dressed, put on my shoes, opened the door, noticed the la...

As predicted, driving to Shannon on Tuesday evening didn't do me any favours. My right hamstring got tighter and tighter the longer I sa...

Mike does that thing before his marathons where he summarises his training from the last few months. While I hope nobody will compare his an...

There was plenty to ponder about in the last section of comments. First of all, I’ve been doing some of the recommendations already; e.g. st...

My exercise withdrawal isn’t getting better, and I really can’t wait for the marathon. Somehow I’ll have to try and survive the next 11 days...

When the alarm went off at 5:05am yesterday morning I was really tempted to stay in bed and get some more sleep instead of hitting the road ...

I’m almost one week into my taper, and the madness is slowly taking hold of me. It started on Wednesday. The symptom: I can hardly remember ...

I’ve started the taper, and I can already tell that the intensity has decreased. The usual 15 mile midweek run has been reduced to a mere 12...

After being slightly held back last week, I finally managed to run my last 20 miler this Monday. Despite this being three days later than or...

I do listen to you guys and gals, honestly, at least sort of. As advised, I didn’t do my 20 miler on Friday. I woke up at 5 am, and listened...

The good news is that I don’t have to fly to Dublin on Friday. The whole meeting has been cancelled, and I’m off the hook. The bad news is t...

I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person. This doesn’t prevent me from doing stupid things from time to time. Take Monda...

On Thursday evening I went to bed at around 9:30. I set the alarm for 4:25, but didn’t even need it; I was awake at 4:22 and got up quietly,...

I’ve run in worse conditions. Once. When it was hail stoning. While it wasn’t as bad as that, Wednesday’s weather was still rather appalling...

The marathon is getting closer and closer. There are less than 2 weeks of full training before the taper, and I’m already dreading it. I gue...

The best effect from my 23-miler from 3 weeks ago is that I’m no longer nervous before a 20 mile run. Never mind the boost it gave to my fit...

It looks like the present weather of rain, rain, and then some more rain is supposed to last for a few days longer. The reason for all that ...

On each of my last three marathons, I have faced pretty much the same problem during my taper: I got sick. Before Belfast it was a stomach b...