The Turning Point Came – 2012 and 2013

Alreet!  This blog has been an interesting one for to think about.  Looking back on all my races so far in this blog series has been interesting but the 3 races covered in this blog were the turning point for me.  So, we’re back in 2012, I’ve made by debut as Usingh Bolt at London Marathon and not for the first time I had decided to call it a day with marathon running.  London 2012 was my 6^th full marathon and pretty good going for what was meant to be a 1-time thing.

The common thread with all these marathons was that they were painful, I was underprepared, but they were done for good causes.  4 London marathons, 1 Edinburgh and 1 New York.  In fairness this time my ‘retirement’ from marathon running lasted 2 years! 

Back to 2012.  Scrolling through Facebook in June I saw a competition being run by BUPA, giving away 10 places for that years Great North Run.  They were the main sponsors at the time, and this was in the days when competitions on social media, well mainly Facebook, was relatively new.

I clicked on the link to leave my personal details and left it at that.  Two weeks later, I’ve just come off doing a night shift and I’m in bed on a weekday morning when I hear my phone vibrating just after 9am.  Initially I was going to leave it but then decided to answer it and heard a very pleasant voice tell me I had won a place in the GNR.  She confirmed my email address and told me to make sure I completed the link in the email to claim my place.

I fell asleep, woke up and then about 2 hours later remembered the call.  Suffice to say it was a genuine call, trolling wasn’t really a thing at the time and that was me in the GNR 2012! It would be my 3^rd one, 2006 and 2010 being my other 2.  2006 had went to plan and I’d done a decent job of getting to within 2 minutes of my target time.  2010 had been tough and nothing to write home about.  Birmingham Half in 2009 was probably the best race I had prior to GNR2012 and the 2 races I did in 2013.  Birmingham half I surprised myself with my time, although on reflection it was 3 weeks before NY Marathon where I would finally crack 6 hours, so it needed to be a good one!

I made the decision not to run for charity at GNR2012.  As I had won the place, I felt like I could try to enjoy it a bit more and more importantly I could do another race as Usingh Bolt!  It would be my first half after 2 years; I only did London marathon in 2011 and I started my training as soon as I knew I had got the place.

I remember I wore my orange Newcastle top that year with Usingh Bolt written on the back, so runners behind me couldn’t miss it!  From memory I remember meeting a couple of my old school friends the night before for a meal in Low Fell in Gateshead.  One of them was running her first half and it was good to have a catch up and it put me into a very relaxed mood for the next day.

The run went well.  My target was to beat my time of 2:40:03 that I did my first GNR in.  This would be my 8^th half and as it turned out I comfortably beat that time coming in, in 2:26:31.  I didn’t realize it when I finished but it was only 30 seconds slower than my PB set at Birmingham half in 2009.  It felt good.  I’d trained well, I’d really focused on it, and I loved that day.  A few school friends were out cheering and spotted me and mentioned it on Facebook.

A job well done I can honestly say that I felt a real runner high after that race.  That’s not to take away from the previous races as they were all important to me.  This meant more to me than the PB at Birmingham half in 2009.  That race was building up to a marathon, so I needed it to go well and thankfully it did.  But this GNR things clicked and after this GNR I kept a routine going of running 3 times a week.  Not big distances.  Just a few miles when I could so I maintained some decent running fitness.

After the GNR an still buzzing on a good run I paid to be a Grear Run member which meant for 3 years I had a guaranteed place in the GNR if I wanted it.  I still had to pay for it but 2012 was the year I became hooked on the GNR and to a lesser degree at that point, running as a whole.  I didn’t do Birmingham half 2012, I’m not sure why but in 2013 my focus was on GNR, and I did enter the Birmingham half for 2013.

It was also in 2013 that I found out that Walsall Arboretum had a Parkrun so that became a regular part of my running schedule in 2013 and helped me to keep the miles in my legs whilst meeting more fellow runners local to me.  And I had people I could talk to about races!  I’m going to cover Parkrun in my next blog as it was a big part of me becoming a regular runner and also introduced me to a fabulous running club which I eventually joined after months of dithering about it!

So, 2013, 2 half marathons and I went to the GNR determined that I could run under 2 hrs. 25.  This was based on my Parkrun times and some 9 and 10 mile runs I did.

Again, I met up with a few friends the day before, took a trip down memory lane with visiting where I grew up, where I went to school and seeing family.

GNR 2013 went amazingly.  My time was 2:20:03.  I’d come in comfortably under the time I set myself.  I was a bit critical of myself.  3 seconds over!  Surely, I could have kicked a bit earlier?  But I was so happy.  Another very good run and having lots of banter with the name Usingh Bolt.

About 6 weeks later I went into the Birmingham half with just one target.  It was my 10^th half marathon.  Again, more than I had planned to do, but having run marathons half’s were OK in my book! My target was to beat my GNR time by at least 4 seconds!  A sub 2:20 would do.  The result? 2:18:03.  Another PB and taking part in Parkrun, having runners to talk to before races and having more belief in myself had paid off.  There had been some weight loss which helped of course but I’d finally found that hard work was needed but it felt so good to see that hard work pay off.

I’d finally realized that maintaining running as part of my lifestyle was a good thing.  I’d always be in some sort of decent shape, and I wouldn’t need to train from scratch for every race which was pretty much what I had been doing since 2006.  Taking up Parkrun had made a huge difference.  Going down to the Arbo and running flat out, something I had never done, even in training had helped.

My plan for 2014 was basically the same 2 races again!  I knew there were lots of other races that happened.  Going to Parkrun and listening to club runners talk about all these other races made me realise there was a lot more to the running scene than I gave it credit for.

Now, I have no memory of who the following conversation took place with.  I know it was a male runner, that it happened after a Parkrun in 2013 and we had a bit of a chuckle about the idea.  I’m sure it was an older runner who had a lot of running experience because they were pretty confident that the idea, they gave me was possible with the right planning, training, focus, hardwork and belief.

I was asked how many races I had done, and I said that from 2006 upto 2013 I had done 6 full marathons and 10 half marathons. So basically, in less than 8 years I had done 16 races.  As a serious non-runner before 2006, not a bad haul.  Based on what I’ve done since, some would say a bit lacklustre, even lazy!

This fellow runner made a comment which I don’t remember exactly word for word that I should see if I could do the same number of races in less than 8 months!  Now I was firmly of the belief at this time, as it’s what I had read (!!), that you should do marathons about 6 months apart.  A spring one and an autumn one with a couple of half marathons thrown in.  That’s what I had done in 2009 which was my ‘busiest’ year of running with 2 fulls and 2 halfs in an 8-month period.

Anyway, I had a bit of a laugh about how it would be daft to even attempt such a running challenge and was told that it wasn’t that unusual, and it was something I was more than capable of doing.  I’ll be honest, I laughed it off but over the next few weeks I started reading about incredible running feats from around the world.

All of a sudden, the idea of 6 full and 10 half marathons in 8 months did not sound daft.  It actually sounded feasible and something that I decided I was going to have a go at!  So, my first running challenge of 2014, for Macmillans Cancer, came into being.  I decided like all runners that I’d prefer a round number so 2014 the target was 14 half marathons and 6 full marathons!  I added on 4 more halfs.

My knowledge of races was limited to ones I had done. GNR, Silverstone and Birmingham for half marathons and London, Edinburgh and New York for fulls.  I didn’t have place in London 2014, and it was too late to get a charity place.  NY was not an option, so Edinburgh became one of the 6 I decided to do.  All 3 halfs mentioned above were definite, so I needed to find another 13!

But for 2014 I had a running challenge to focus on, I had a charity to run for to keep me focused and to help make a difference to and I had belief.  The latter would be tested on many occasions in 2014.

There was 1 thing that really helped me get through 2014.  I became a member of Aldridge Running Club and there I would meet and run with a woman who was and is a massive inspiration to me and who was doing a challenge on an even bigger scale than me at that time!

I’ll be back in 2 weeks with Let’s Talk About Parkrun, which as I mentioned I got into in 2013.  I’ll be breaking 2014 down into segments as it was quite the rollercoaster!