As we come towards the end of the year, I’ve been reflecting on this past year while out on my training runs. Yesterday Anna and I ran the Great Hale Santa run, we ran this last year and it was such fun we came back and did it again this year. This was gonna be for me a good training strong training run, it was a solo effort which finished in 38:20 for a 10k and 1st place, Anna came in 2nd lady, sadly on the day she was very poorly so she did well to get out and run.

So yeah with the now coming to an end, I’ve had a pretty good year, race Pb’s included

10k 36:53

10mile 61 ( not official, ran it in a Half marathon race

Half Marathon 82 minutes

Marathon 2:58

The Manchester Marathon, for me was the perfect race, you don’t have this very often but every thing just clicked right on the day and I nailed my race plan perfectly!

Marathon training does really get you fit I have to say, wasn’t the perfect build up in the Manchester block seeing as we had a house move towards the end of the block, then there was finding new routes to explore to, but really enjoyed running around my new area, Grantham and its surrounding villages are great to run around, ( hilly but great) we do have some beautiful places to explore, Belton House and its grounds

It’s been a great year, and sharing the year together with my beautiful other half has been amazing, 🥰

Training certainly challenges you which is good right ! And you certainly learn lessons from being out on your runs and I’ve learned a few myself, like be patient things generally don’t click into place straight away, I’ve learned not to beat myself up if I’m not hitting paces in training, just getting out and being consistent is the key ( well for me this has worked) and I’m one of those who doesn’t use heart rate I’m afraid, if I’m going out for an easy run, that’s what it is , and a easy run 90% of the time it’s run how I feel, could be 7:30 pace could be 9:30 pace but I’m doing it to feel on the day, anyway I’m rambling 😂.

Christmas has just finished now and it’s New Year’s Eve, we had an amazing Christmas time, busy but great ! 😌 We just got back from visiting family around Torquay / Paignton area, and yes managed to get a couple of runs done around there too

So 2023 is now at a close it’s been a fun and full year, full of highs and lows but manly highs 🥰 life is going by very quickly I think and it just goes to show you need to make the most of life before it passes you by, anyway here’s to a even better 2024, Happy New everyone, make it a good one……

22nd October Prestwold Hall 10k

This was my first race since completing the marathon, no pressure race just wanted to see where I was at fitness wise in a 10k race, so Anna and I entered this one together.

The course was an interesting one 😆 starting outside Prestwold Hall on gravel, which lasted about 130m or so, we’ve had some heavy rain about the ground was pretty slippery! So having to be careful really. The course went around an airfield and around the car park where we parked, there was a section for about 3k where the pot holes where huge!!! Looked like a war zone ! Was a bit shocked we was running through this section and having to dodge these craters!

The course was pretty flat so you definitely could get a good time on the course.

Coming in to the final turn ( the last 130m ) I somehow lost my footing and my feet went from under me and I went flying! Landing on my right shoulder, cutting my knees open and dislocated a finger on my left hand, but I soon shot up and just sprinted to the line to finish in 7th place overall and 2nd V40, but went straight to the medical tent to get treated..

I was fine just a few cuts and bruises, sore for a few days but you just get on with it 😊.

Overall a good result and a base to get myself ready for Gainsborough in a months time….

Gainsborough Morton 10k

This past Sunday was race day, and sadly didn’t go to plan, nobody’s fault just sadly the Friday before I got hit with and illness that wiped me out! I waited to see how I was feeling the night before, I was feeling a lot better but still not 💯 but still chose to race, I’m glad I did cause I enjoyed the race, and seeing some of the great club members which I don’t get to see very often.

I set out at a comfortable pace , and reached 5k in around 18:40 ish but after that I started to feel rough really, head feeling light, started to sneeze on route, I was sweating more than I should have been, so I decided to drop the pace back more comfortably to around 6:25 ish and just get to the finish line in one piece.

Not a bad result considering how I felt but not what I was hoping for, but never mind, we shall go again next year now.

Winter training is in full swing, illness is slowly beginning shaken off too.

Next year to go sub 37 again but would love to go sub 36. Pb sits at 36:53.

Half Marathon would like a sub 1:20, Pb for that sits at 1:22, so some work to do but I think it’s do able 👍🏻

I shall do a 2023 year review in the coming weeks…..

It’s been 3 days now since the marathon so I’ve had a little time to process everything, training, race day etc, coming out of this 12 week training block and some high volume in there you ask yourself questions about what you did and if there’s anything you would change, and to be honest, no there isn’t . I went into this training block hoping to crack the 2:50 mark at Chester, my PB set at 2:58 this year at Manchester, was I asking to much of myself?! Maybe, but looking back I definitely didn’t choose the right course to do it on 😆 😆, think I should’ve paid attention a bit more to the course profile ! The had some challenging hills 😆 don’t get me wrong the course was very beautiful, but I wasn’t there to look at the scenery I was there to set a time. I made 4 plans for the day , plan A sub 2:50, B – as close as to 2:50 as possible, C- sub 3, D – finish !

Training, now I’m not gonna go into to much depth with my training as it’s all on Strava to see, I’ll try and link to it ( if I remember 😂) but I maxed out volume wise at about 103 miles for the week, longest run 23 miles, I did one long run per week which was broken down towards Marathon pace, and a mid week long run which i maxed a 14 miles, and one session a week, rest of the volume was easy / recovery runs .. looking back my training and I’m happy with the work I put into this block, through some tough conditions to, I remember the summer being pretty challenging, heavy rain for most of my earlier long runs, and then blistering hot towards the later ! 🥵 but I got it done and faced the elements.

Race Day came around, so it was the 8th October and marathon day was here, my eldest son stayed with my parents for the weekend while Anna and I went to Chester, such a beautiful town full of gorgeous architecture, lots of Tudor buildings

When we arrived at Chester we checked into our hotel room which was across from the racecourse where the start line was. I did a little shake run about 20 minutes or so, checked out the start line and the race village

Ran alone the beautiful city walls and just taking in the views, thinking over my race plan for tomorrow, I wasn’t feeling to nervous to be honest.

That evening we met up with the Skegness and District group for a pre race carb load 😆, a lovely Italian restaurant, and pizza was definitely on the menu for me, it was great catching up with everybody from the club as I don’t get a chance to much these days, great club with a lovely bunch of ppl 👍🏻

Race morning came, 6am I woke and got breakfast made, for me that was 2 bagels 🥯 with jam and coffee, a glass of water before I started anything tho. At this point I just wanted to get going 😆 the feeling of nerves and excitement and the months of training coming together into this one race! I knew I had done everything I could do so I felt well prepared. Getting my kit on I also wrote on the back of my hand some target times to hit at certain points which helped me mentally.

After breakfast we start to walk to the race village, I went into the England and Welsh Masters room where we would be looked after as i entered the British Masters Marathon Championship, so after a briefing and team photos, I went and did a short warm up with a few strides to get everything activated, got into the starting area, met with a few friends which was nice, Ty and Alex who both had great races on the day.

9am and the weather conditions were good, the horn goes off and we where off ! The first section of the race was quite rolling a few ups and downs, but it’s early in the race so you go with it, I soon got into my pace and relaxed

After 5k I was on pace and only 10secs ahead of time so I knew I didn’t go out crazy with a few other guys and just stuck to plan.

Hitting 10k in about 40 minutes and feeling good and relaxed , things where going well, I already had 1 gel at this point, I planned to take them every 30 minutes just like I trained for and just like in Manchester, I was also taking on water at every station as it was starting to warm up so remembering to keep hydrated.

Half way soon came and I got there just under 1h 25, so again bang on target for a sub 2:50, but hitting 16 miles things started to pinch, it was getting so so hot, and the later part of the course was get hilly, surprisingly hilly, some of these hills where very challenging, I remember crossing this weir, going over the bridge, looking up and thinking “ shit are we going up that “! 😆 so head down and get working, but pace was slipping , the next 3 miles I was touching 7 min pace which wasn’t good and sub 2:50 was slipping, but that pace was become way to hard to get to and the later hills took there toll on me, my body started to badly cramp up, hips, abductors, and hamstrings, I know the marathon hurts and the I do get that, but I was getting so hard to stride out and get to my pace, so I made a decision to try and keep to sub 3 hour pace, but that was also proving difficult, I knew I was going to have to resort to plan D of just finish, which was gutting! It became a very painful slog from 22 on, the course and heat had broke me, and within those last mile’s there was still hills to climb, there was so many ppl stopping and walking up hills and pouring water over themselves, I remember running behind one Welsh athlete as we was coming into the last mile and back into town, he shouted “ oh for fuck sake not another hill !” 😆 my thoughts exactly buddy 😂! But seeing some crowds and ppl cheering you on was so nice and encouraged me to try and push on as much as I could.

We took a left turn and a pretty sharp decline on cobblestone to enter the finishing section, I had to be so careful coming down here my legs were pretty shot to pieces so I couldn’t fly down like I would have down in a 10k or something, but running down this section felt good, painful but good, the finish was in site and I knew I could stop very soon 😆

Crossed the line in 3:03:10. Not what I wanted on the day but all I had on the day, so I’ve gotta be proud of that….

Like I said at the start, it’s now Wednesday, 3 days after the race, and have time to reflect over my race, my training, and to be honest there will be more reflection over the coming days, but I feel a lot better about the result now than I did on Sunday. I won’t be entering a marathon again next year anyway, I’m taking a break at the moment from any structured running, went out for a nice 20 mile cycle yesterday which felt great to spin my legs, so yeah a challenge awaits, what it is I have no idea, and only time will tell 👍🏻😉😊

A few thanks you’s 1st to my gorgeous girl Anna, for he amazing support throughout my journey always encouraging me and being there for me, thank you babe, love you loads xxx

2nd to my coach Gary, for his continued support and advice throughout my training, thank you..

And 3rd to the England and Welsh Masters athletics team for looking after us oldies 😆 thanks guys 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Friday 11th Aug was the evening of the Sleaford summer 10k, first time I’ve ran this race even though I’ve trained on the course many years. The start was At Scredington village hall, me and my girl was entered to race. The idea of this race was for a good solid effort, the course is undulating so not really PB potential. Coming into the race I did have a slight issue with my right knee during the week but any pain seem to had past so I gave it ago.

With Newark Half Marathon coming up on the Sunday I had to be careful, so I set off ( probably a little bit quick, Opps) 🫢 but was feeling pretty good, the temperature was pretty warm, and so so dry, just before half way I felt my knee pain start up which made me pull back on the pace, getting to 5k and grabbing the bottled water which was definitely needed the knee seemed to have settled again but I kept the pace the same and stayed into my rhythm. The most testing part of the race was definitely how warm and dry the evening was, but arrived back in Scredington after a solid effort, coming in a 38:25 was happy to finish the race. Went out to do my cool down and to cheer in my girl who was still out on course

So I made the decision the next day not to run the. Newark Half Marathon and jeopardise the rest of my Marathon training, the Half isn’t my main goal so I decided to play it by ear, did a couple of training runs and see how things went. My right quad was very tight, which was pulling on the top half of my knee, so some stretching and foam rolling definitely needed. I’m mid week now and everything seems pretty good 👍🏻.

I have no other races booked in for this training block until the goal race of Chester Marathon, so that’s like 8 more weeks of solid training, hopefully the rest of the block will go without anymore issues ….

A couple of weekends ago I raced the Heckington 10 mile road race with my better half ( Anna) for me the race didn’t go as I planned but you have to take the result and move on, sometimes you just get those races where you feel completely off and it’s the case of just finishing.

I was personally planning on dipping under the hour mark for this race, I felt in great shape and marathon training is going so well. The race always starts with 2 laps of a grass track then head out through the village and down the fen roads. I knew I felt off after the first mile as the pace I wanted to do felt so hard, I was really blowing 😮‍💨😮‍💨. The day was surprisingly hot wasn’t expecting that, very humid.

I seemed to find myself in my new marathon pace after 5k ! (6:30 pace ) so I locked into that and tried to enjoy the race, god I nearly stopped at half way, the course is 2 loops and when I got half way the thought of doing another loop filled me with dread !! Couldn’t believe how I was feeling! But one of the marshals on the day, Terry and old friend of mine saw I was struggling and gave me some encouragement and told me to keep it going, it seem to perk me up, I had to change my mindset on this loop and told myself just to finish with a good effort, I saw Anna on this loop, she was looking so so strong 💪🏻.

The last straight home couldn’t come quick enough, every time I tried to pick up the pace I just had nothing! So brought it home and got a time of 64:48 which was 1 min slower than last year and 3 min slower than i race at the beginning of the year, I ran a Half Marathon in March and reached the 10 mile mark in 61 mins, this is why I thought I could dip under the hour, but never mind we move forward 👍🏻😊

Anna had a fantastic race coming in 1:26 💪🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

As far as marathon preparation is going, that’s going great, seem to be hitting my pace targets well, did my first 20 miler on Monday, I split the run, 13 miles @ 6:50 pace then 7 @ 6:30 pace which is MP!

Big weekend coming up, this Friday night have a undulating 10k in Scredington, then on Sunday have a Half Marathon in Newark ! 🫢😱 should be fun 😂

So since I ran my PB in Grimsby, I made a decision to run another Marathon! Oh boy 😆, but I felt the need.. Training was going well, and it was nice not sticking to a structured plan so to speak, but I was getting some good times in my lower distances, for me tho it was the challenge of going quicker at the marathon, so I scouted around and I entered Chester Marathon on October the 8th.

So I set myself the challenge of going sub 2:50 ! Could I do it ? Well we shall see, I’m in week 3 of my training block and things are going well, I’m hitting my pace target which is about 6:30 pace, never would I have thought I’d be doing this kinda pace for a marathon so just goes to show what consistency can do, don’t get me wrong think there is things that I’m doing which has helped over the years. Now I’m not changing much from my Manchester block cause that worked well, a few tweaks here and there like pace and volume.

Volume for me does seem to work, and I seem to be again in the shape of my life, feels so good, but not taking this lightly and need to keep away the niggles, so recovering is very important, sleep, eating, hydration etc..

Races wise I have the Heckington 10 coming up this Saturday my goal is to go sub 1 hour for this, figures crossed. I have also entered the Sleaford 10k which is a evening race, now I know this is an undulating route, so it’ll be more about a good effort and my age group place for this. 2 days later I’ve got the Newark Half Marathon! Now I would like to go for a time for this one, sub 80 mins, hopefully 🤞 😆

Im definitely enjoying running around the new routes of Grantham, a great mixture of town, country lanes, trail, small villages. The weather is very hot and miss and the moment, but it’s good cause with the race being in October the conditions are not gonna be perfect, so it’s getting my body use to all kinda conditions 😆 basically been soaked nearly everytime I’ve done my marathon efforts 😆

On the 4th June I ran the Grimsby 10k, did this race back in 2018 and liked the course, very flat and pb potential. Going into this race I didn’t put any expectations on myself cause the week of the race I came down with some sort of illness, stomach cramps and feeling ill 🤒 but I managed to maintain my training, seem to shake it off towards the end of the week, so I just thought go and enjoy the race and see what you’ve got on the day.

I got there about 1 hour before the start time, got the car parked and walked down the town hall where the race base was. Met up with the Skegness and District gang, a few photos and a great to catch up with the club. Got my warm up started and checked out the start line and got my mind into race mode.

So at the start line I felt relaxed and calm and waited for the off. Horn goes and we where moving ! I relaxed and found my rhythm and settled. The first 5k soon ticked over and I wasn’t struggling, it was warm don’t get me wrong, but I seemed to find myself with a couple of guys and we was working quite well together. The second half of the race was tougher as there is a long stretch on the carriage way which seemed to break a few ppl, pace did drop a bit but just keep my mindset as strong as possible and just kept moving forward.

After the carriage way section came to an end we took a left turn, and I knew we was coming into the last stretch of the race, the support increased and you could just start to make out music and the announcer, so we was close to the park where the finish line was. With 800m to go I just picked it up and and dug deep, but with 400m to go I just gave it everything, turned onto the grass and sprinted to the line. Finished with a high PB !! 36:53 ! Nearly 40 seconds off my previous best ! So happy with the result. Also coming away with a 3rd Team prize with Skegness and District! 2 races 2 trophies 🏆! Very happy with day.

Heckington show 10 mile race next, so about 7 weeks of training to put down before i race again….

So my first proper race since the marathon was a couple of weeks ago, I decided to do a low key local 10k, just to see where I was fitness wise, so no expectations going in just see what happens.

It was quite a small field of runners about 180, and the weather was warm but the was a wind so definitely not a calm day, and with the race being around open fen roads that wind will play it’s part and it did about mile 4.

I set off with the front pack, there was a group of runners of about 6 who headed off, but that soon broke up the first 4 where quite young lads so I didn’t go with those as the pace was sitting around 5:45 and that felt okay for now and I wasn’t pushing past that. So I sat on the back of another guy and kept him in sight, I had another guy on my right left shoulder who was sitting there which was fine cause I was just finding my rhythm, the first 1 or so was around a small village then we headed out around the loop of the fen roads, think what was driving me forward was I could see the lead car for quite some time, was quite a strange feeling as I’ve never had that before, first water station as I was approaching a car cut right in front of my and blocked my path from get a cup, as it wasn’t closed roads for the race. I kicked on from the guy on my shoulder as I saw the guy in front was pushing forward so I went with it. The race after that was pretty uneventful really as the gap between us stayed the same, the wind about mile 4 did slow me a bit, but as soon as we turned left I was a long straight home with only a couple of turns to go. I saw the rugby field coming into view so i tried to pick up my pace a bit see what I had left and what time I could do I knew I had 5 place secured a good Vet place, so hit the field and saw the clock and I was so so close to a PB, crossed the line in 37: 32 which was a slight PB ! My pb was 37:33, and I came 2nd vet to cross the line and 5th overall .

A great little local race to do, route flat as a pancake to so big PB potential, one downside is you are pretty much isolated and can run the whole race one your own, but that’s what you train for, I mean I train on my own anyway so that doesn’t bother me.

Grimsby 10k is this Sunday, again no expectations, have been suffering from an illness this week, but let’s see what happens. 👍🏻😊

So it’s been 2 weeks ( and a bit ) from completing Manchester Marathon, what’s been going on? How am I feeling?

Not much running took place in the first week, a couple of runs and a lot of walking ☺️ it actually felt quite nice not to double run in a day and just to chill. The day after a took myself out for a nice long walk to keep the legs moving, the day after I went out for about a 20 min run, nice and easy and just enjoy it.

In that first week, things were just sinking in and what I just accomplished! Going sub 3 was a huge ambition of mine and to be honest going back to the marathon I will have to have a big incentive to go back to the marathon, but as time went on I was finding incentive’s 😆 like finding out I’ve got the Good for age for London and Boston US, plus my watch giving me some great new race predictions!

So incentive’s are there, hmmm would love a 2:50 marathon 😂 oh no what’s happening! Running through the streets of Manchester was amazing, the crowds were great, so going to London Marathon does really appeal to me now.

Last week training wise I got back into regular training, no sessions though just run how I feel, manly easy exploring running, there are some great trails around here which I have been finding and loving.

I managed a total of 46 miles last week and really enjoyed doing them. Managed a couple of steady to tempo runs to, one which was on the treadmill and a 10k time trial, I am taking it with a pinch of salt cause it’s on the treadmill but I set a time which was just over 35 minutes! Which surprised me, but we shall see what happens this year. Got my first race booked in which is a 10k coming up on the 21st of May, Deepings 10k.

It has been great running how I feel these past couple of weeks but I miss a little bit of structure, so over the next couple of weeks the structure will come back in and will start to build again.

So the build towards the Deepings 10k will being 👍🏻

The weekend of the marathon had arrived, Saturday the 15th April, in the afternoon me and Anna ( my partner) drove up to Manchester to stay at Hotel Football, about a mile from the start and finish line. The Hotel was so cool, with a great view of Old Trafford Stadium, being a Man UTD fan this was amazing 🤩. Later that afternoon I did a shake out run and checked out the race village and start / finish areas, I remember feeling excited and ready to go ! Trying to keep my emotions at bay was tough, this race ment a lot to me as I’d put so much hard work into my training. That evening we both headed down into the hotel restaurant and I had my pre race tea, Pizza of course and it was so nice, not making any chances to my food was important. That night I laid my kit out for the morning, it wasn’t long before I was in bed and trying to get some sleep, hmm trying 😆 I did manage some, and the morning of the race was soon upon me.

Race Day….. it’s race day and I was going through the motions in the morning, woke at 5:30am got my breakfast sorted out, 2 bagels with jam, honey and banana, just what I practice my long runs on in training so I knew this worked, and of course a coffee and a electrolyte drink. I got changed and used the toilet countless times 😆 😂. I prepared my gels, I made a tiny snip in them so they wore tear easy on the race, which worked perfectly, I used 6 High 5 gels on the day, 1 before the race started ( about 10 mins or so)

Headed to the start line I said my goodbyes to my girlfriend and did my warm up, which I did along the finishing straight, then headed to race village, I met Dontino from the Chatty Adventures YouTube channel, apologise if I’ve spelled your name wrong buddy 👍🏻, it was great to meet you and walk to the start line with you. In the starting area it was all very real now, I was keeping warm with a couple of tops over my race vest, but huge amounts of ppl there was quite a sight, and this was just in the sub 3 pen !!

The race was delayed until they cleared the course, but that didn’t take long, and before i knew it the gun went off and we where moving, the Marathon had begun! Eek 😱 😆. I saw the sub 3 pacer to my right so was keeping him in sight, the first mile was quicker than I wanted but it was so congested the crowds was moving you along and it was difficult to slow down as I was getting clipped, this was the case for the first few miles, 5k and came through in about 20min’s, and I found myself alongside the pacer, and got chatty to him, asked him what time was he gonna go through halfway at, 90 minutes he said, I wanted about 87/88 minutes so at the 10k mark I made a decision to push on, I went through 10k in 42min’s and already had my first gel, I planned on taking them every 30 minutes but also made sure I got a bottle of water at every water station which was 5k, so I just sipped on the water and poured some over my neck and wrists to keep my body temperature down as it was warm in the first few miles. Seeing my girlfriend about mile 5 was such a great sight and gave me a great boost. After mile 8 and lapping old Trafford many times in the first few miles 😆 😆, there was a long stretch until Halfway which was good and I could settle into a good rhythm, the pace was feeling so good at this point and I felt like I was holding myself back, but I wanted to get to at least 18 miles comfortably, I got to the half marathon point in 1:28 feeling good. I remember so many telling me get to Altrincham there was a killer hill, which surprised me, so I braced myself and as I reached about 16 miles I was there, now I personally didn’t find the hill all that bad, especially running some of the hills around where I lived in Grantham, sorry ! The crowds where amazing there, so much noise and support, gave you such a boost. There where some challenging inclines over flyovers, but aging nothing to bad. The race was still going really well and remember going through the 20 mile mark feeling really strong 💪🏻, so it was the case now of knuckling down and keeping strong mentally, the race plan was working so far, I got to Mile 23 and it started to get tough, I broke the race down in my head by 1/2 mile increments, kept telling myself to keep picking my feet up and moving forward, at this point I was seeing so many ppl stopping and dropping out, there was no chance of me stopping, this was my race today if I kept going and just kept moving forward! The weather conditions did change in the later stages of the race, a fine rain was coming down. Mile 25 came and I remember telling myself about a mile to go, keep going, you’ve got this!!! And before I knew it I was on the section where I did my warm up ! Which gave me a huge incentive to push on, before I knew it we turned left and was one the finishing straight, and I never thought I would be sprinting at the end of a marathon but I picked my legs up and got my feet turning and ran for my life down that straight, it felt like forever going down there, but I crossed line and I honestly could have cried!! Seeing the time on my watch saying 2:58 ! I did it ! I really did !! getting my medal and taking to other athletes and celebrating with them was so good, walking back to the athlete village and trying find my girlfriend, and when I finally did find her it was an amazing feeling i yes I could have cried again, it was hug which was definitely needed ☺️☺️☺️👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Above are a few races pictures and race stats. But I’ll conclude the race report here. I’ll pop down my post race feelings later on in the week in a separate blog, but thank you to everyone for there support, a special thank you Anna my girlfriend and to Gary my coach could not have done this without you.