I’M IN!!!
Yes I’m in next year’s London Marathon. Not through the ballot mind, but through a charity I work closely with in my school – Place2Be. They provide emotional and therapeutic support for children in schools, building resilience and supporting children’s mental health. I have seen them do some great work in our school and felt that if my place was through a charity, it would be this one. Seems quite right really.
So where now? Well the fundraising is about to begin this term and will continue up until the main day – 22nd April 2018. I have never run a marathon before and this will be a new challenge for me, although one I am sure I can complete. People are already asking me what time I think I can do it in. I keep asking myself whether I should put a number on it or just run for the fun of it (if you can call running a marathon fun!). Completing it is certainly the number one objective, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t think about a time! Shall I commit? Well realistically I should be able to run it in around/just under 4 hours which I think is a very respectable time, but…and a big but…as long as I stay injury free and training is consistent, then it is possible.
What makes me think it? Well here is my reasoning – if you can run a sub 52 min 10k (which I can quite comfortably) and half marathon in 1hr 52, that gives me 2hr 8mins for the remaining 1/2 marathon. If I have the conditioning, I certainly know I can run these times. It also means running roughly 5:38min km. There’s a great article where I got this info: http://marathonbasics.com/content/4-hour-marathon-race-strategy. So somehow I have talked myself into running a time….I must be nuts.
I’m currently running somewhere between 15-20 miles a week (no-where near enough) although what is interesting is I don’t really plan to run more than 4 times a week. This is mainly because I will continue to cross train, not forgetting all my triathlon antics! It is not like I’m starting from zero. I have a good few years of endurance training behind me. Also I’m not sure my knees will take more that the 4 runs planned! These will consist of mostly slow runs with a tempo and a speed session once a week. Most marathon plans last about 16 weeks, and I believe by January I will have a very good running base to begin with anyway (well that is the plan).
So I will update you along the journey and of course keep you updated on my triathlon exploits. My fundraising page is:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DanielMansfield1
If you wish to donate, which I would of course be very grateful, please use the above link. Hopefully I will get a few pics of the fundraising exploits I have planned to undertake in the run up to xmas. Along with this blog you can follow me on twitter @digital_v_e
I will update soon! Thanks for your support.
tri.to.be.iron 