Talkback: Win the ultimate spring marathon experience

Jimmy Carr in his quest to make his jokes quicker and smaller does a brillaint 3 word joke:

Stationery store moves.

goldbeetle Xmas etc... wrote (see)

Purple pants?

williambloke wrote (see)

In response to some of the questions being asked of me I feel I should offer the following:

Far from being new to racing, my first race was way back in 2002. A local 10K, followed by copious drinking in the pub. And so it remained for a number of years, with the addition of a few Half Marathons thrown in, the fastest time being 1:56:04 for the 2006 Bath Half.

In 2007 I entered the London Marathon & was accepted. I didn't give the distance enough respect, went through Tower Bridge in 2 hrs then blew up big time at mile 17. The rest was just a walk & a stumble. That year I also entered 8 10Ks (45:32 being the best time) & 4 Half Marathons (1:49:11 being the best of those). In between it was back to the pub & following a bad diet.

In 2008 I was ill. Really ill. Over 6 months of solid migraines saw me turn into a reclusive couch potato, but all I wanted to do was run. Once I was given the all clear, the rehabilitation started. I cut down on fags & beer and took up a healthy diet. And I shuffled/jogged/ran until I felt good enough to enter a couple of races. Nothing spectacular, but I got to run as fast as I could.

The next year (2009) I joined a club & started to get serious about training. I entered 9 10Ks (SB: 44:06) & 5 Halfs (SB: 1:38:36). I entered the Brighton Marathon, gave up fags, beer, & eating rubbish, & followed a training schedule, achieving my target of a sub-3:30 marathon (and lost 50lbs along the way) 2010 has seen me run in 12 10K races (SB:39:51) 8 Halfs (1:27:40) as well as various cross country, team relays, and 8,9, & 10 mile races. I'm currently running 130-150 miles a month, building a stronger base for when I begin marathon training later on this month, be it for Paris or another race. Targets will be set along the way (such as posting a sub 1:21 half marathon time) & as long as I follow my set training schedule then I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to attain them.

Hope that helps.

Oh, & the best part of lunch on the boot camp has to be the Marks & Spencer Humous & carrot sandwich I found lurking unwanted behind all the Jaffa cakes...

Thanks for the added info, so your half PB is 1.27 to date?

I really wish you the best of luck and I'm not being negative, hell I might even vote for you BUT....

I'd still put you 3.15 at best.

I hope I'm wrong, good luck.

just one thing is bugging me this morning.............is that a number of the new posters are stating that they haven't posted before because they have nothing to add.........or that the are maybe intimidated by the wealth of experience and the experts on here....................

If you have read any thread for more than 5 minutes you will realise that they are maybe a handful of people on the forums who know wehat they are talking about......................the rest of us just try to support each other or just talk crap...........sometimes funny sometimes not.......

with the hundreds of threads going on here there must be something that you have something in common with..............

Please just don't think for a moment that the majority of us have a clue what we are talking about..

I echo that.  I often feel inferior to those who can run a sub 40 10k or sub 1.30 half but I still put my neck out and ask for their advice and bore them with my efforts.  I have learnt so much over the past few years through this forum and hope I have given something back in return.

I think that part of the problem lies in the fact that many of the newbie Super Sixers seem to be under the impression that they can / should only post on the Super Six threads.  Perhaps RW Towers haven't made it sufficiently clear that the entire forum is open for everyone to join in and that Super Sixers should just post away, as any newbie to the forum would, on any thread that interests them, even if it's nothing to do with running / training or the competition.

You can engage and share on all threads.

I think one of the problems as well is that because so many of the Super Sixers are so new they perhaps don't realise the baggage attached to Super Six for more regular posters. It's very sweet that they can talk about "giving back" but I'm sure many of us are just rolling our eyes at some of the optimistic, if arbitrary, targets being set.

Whoops, it's probably too early in the morning to be a bitch. 

Yep, Wobbled and the fact that quite a lot of us are already doing what the winners will be doing - one poster unfortunately didn't seem to realise this and put up some quite patronising comments, which I'm sure won't have helped.

Mind you, I do think that RW Towers should get this sorted out, it happens every year, so you think that they'd have learnt something by now.

I'm still voting for Charlie though.

PS Jane, some of the contenders who are already regular forumites are posting on all sorts of threads, nothing to do with running, training at all.  Sparkly's posting on the Office Christmas Party thread, not a word of Super Six, etc has been mentioned at all!

knight rider wrote (see)

Jimmy Carr in his quest to make his jokes quicker and smaller does a brillaint 3 word joke:

Stationery store moves.

He also does 2 words:

Dwarf shortage

Williambloke - thanks for the response. If it's not a cheeky question - can I ask how old (or at least what age group !) you are - just thinking of the relevance for a sub 1.21 half ie knocking 8 or so minutes off your half time in one chunk. You're positivity and enthusiasm are impressive though I'm not sure it's entirely realistic ! Quite a tall order to improve HM time to that extent while effectively focussing on mara training IMHO but you never know.....

Let's hope any doubters (me included) are proved wrong and have to eat some serious humble pie

Jane - I understand that you must feel a little intimidated about posting on the sub 3:15 thread as one of the regulars on there is also a contender and obviously the thread are going to support someone who has contributed and that they feel l they 'know'. 

I wonder why you have not joined the thread previously to entering the Super Six competition though? You have a GFA entry for London this year which you would have had to submit by August at the latest and I presume you put a sub 3:15 time on your entry form.

I have found the advice and support invaluable over the last 5 years and no amount of free Asics goodies could compensate for that.

Regardless of whether you win the competition, you will still be aiming for a sub 3:15 marathon, so why not introduce yourself? They are a lovely bunch.

 

Bright White Trainers wrote (see)

Ohh I had forgotten that.... But then again I think I sampled everything    It was tasty!

Simon Butler 2 wrote (see)

Bright White Trainers wrote (see)

I think I might base my vote on what was the best part of the lunch from the Boot camp?

I'd go with the pine nut & pesto pasta

Kryptonite wrote (see)

Back to the food point,they were posh jaffa cakeson Sat - M+S dark choc - really good! Also good Haribo Star Mix. Yummy and a bit naughty as it was, I thought it was an odd choice for a bunch of wannabe marathoners, then having to run 5k afterwards. I was not feeling at all speedy! Any thoughts?

What's with all this how amazing the lunch was at Boot Camp. Haha!!!

No healthy food, just a few tiny salad bowls. I picked up the tuna sandwich and it said 18% fat!!! No thanks.....! I went upstairs to starbucks and got 2 chai tea's to drink instead.