energising about a mix of bright sunshine and military oompah bands.Sunshine, shuffles and hillsThe band, bless it, destroyed my best-laid plans to sing my way around the course. (I sing my way around my east London gulag every morning. It's all that keeps me
-proof. The running involved a couple of fast but short (up to seven-mile) runs per week, a hill session running up really slowly and down really fast, and a long run with a backpack, including short frequent walk breaks. It worked. – RespectTheStupidityI think speed
(hills) and one long distance run. The hills have made quite a difference in building up leg strength. We avoid boredom by not planning our routes too much and just head off down various roads. We have added a few miles by getting lost on occasions. We
running time you gave on your application. Safety is our top priority, which is why we have introduced this system, with marshalls around the starting areas so that people will not be able to jump fences and overload each wave."Colin Hill: I work for Great
was running slower than I could walk up a hill, but I kept running. If you want to overcome the mental battle, leave your watch at home and tackle a new route and listen to music, bird song anything – just enjoy being a runner. Also, make sure you're warmed up
. Also, the flatness of the course at Abingdon is good for first-timers. New Forest was my second marathon, and I found it very tough with all the hills."The Abingdon Marathon also obeys the three cardinal rules of event management: organisation
gravity, you'd be far safer finding a decent hill. The rate of lower limb and back injuries amongst military recruits who train with packs is quite frightening. But if you are determined to achieve the "military poseur", try this top tip. Fill your huge
the likelihood of sleep deprivation. I've just had to accept it, like tendonitis or my inability to run up hills! I think flexible sleep patterns are for some of us just a fact of life – accepting our bodies' ability to "catch-up" when they're given half
any terrain, road, hills, XC, anything. It's very accurate; within about two yards in a mile. Any maps can be scanned in, or read in from websites. It's PC based and you can save, print, email your routes. Version 2 also allows for gradient, height
Size certainly doesn't matter - a friend of mine is 4'8" and she runs 8 min miles. My OH who runs 6.5-7 min miles was humbled recently when a tiny female trotted past him up hill on a race, and he never saw her again. It's a great leveller, running! – Siance
