And So It Begins...

Hi, and welcome to my blog.  And thank you for reading!

My name is Alan; I am a 45 year old husband and father of two living near Falkirk, in Central Scotland.  And I have set myself a challenge - I am going to try to run the Edinburgh Marathon on 27th May 2012 - the day before my 46th birthday.  This blog will chart my progress.

Nobody who knew me from school would ever think that I would do anything like this.  I was always averse to any form of exercise; I manipulated the list of subjects I took so as to avoid PE.  All the way through University and for many years after starting work, I didn't do any exercise.


But eventually a couple of friendly colleagues - Alistair and Fiona - persuaded me to come out running with them.  Those first few runs were an embarrassment... thinking I was doing well getting to the one-mile marker without having to stop, hobbling home after a three mile run thinking I was the bee's knees.

Alan finishing the Dunblane 7.5 mile race on May 2011.

Eventually, Alistair started talking about trying the Linlithgow 10k.  On the application form, I put my target as "finishing alive".  I loved the excitement and the experience of the event, until I hit the hill at kilometre seven... that one finished me!  But I did complete in under 55 minutes, and was proud of myself.

Since then I have run a few 10ks, but in 2011 I completed my first ever half marathon.  This was the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow, and what an event it was!  People cheering you on all the way, kind folk passing out fruit and sweeties to the runners.  Even a group of folk setting up an unofficial water station, under the banner "Sikhs In The Community"!  Wonderful.

But even as I crossed the line, in the somewhat frustrating time of 2:00:09,  I knew that this was a half marathon.  Seriously, running for thirteen miles should never be called a "half" of anything!

So... there was an obvious conclusion.  I had to run a full marathon.

And here goes...