One of the best decisions I ever made in my life was to run a marathon at the age of 18.

I haven't told many people that and I am sure it will surprise a few people. However it is true. Running provides me a way out of the stress my working life provides and is such a much much better stress release than drinking too much. Also, I have to say that the best 'rush' I ever had was when I was 18 and I finished my first marathon. I had run 26.1 miles and sprinted the last 100 metres, and stopped and tried to breath, but that endorphin rush, well wow!

Why do I say that it was the best decision I ever made? Because starting to run marathons as a 40 year old holds few fears for me. I have done it before, I can do it again, what's more having done such a crazy thing so young means I have few fears on breaking barriers again and again, though I have learnt patience and hope I am wiser (in avoiding injuries).

Why did I run a marthon when I was 18? I believe that very few people did it at that time. Running wasn't trendy, it has grown so much since then.
It's very simple, it was there for me. My school in England - Stonyhurst - arranged it and I was very fit, no more than that, I was exceptionally fit. It didn't matter that I hadn't run more than 12 miles when I signed up.

It's funny, that in 2011, having done a 3 hour 30 marathon in the past few months, I still feel I am not as fit as when I was 18. I am close, but not there. I want to get there again. In fact I want to beat that feeling! I want to run a sub 3 hour marathon. I will do it unless something major stops me!!!

Of course I knew I was exceptionally fit when I signed up at the age of 18, and I knew that would get me through. I was lucky - lucky in so many ways.
I was naive, so naive. I thought I could take on the world. My preparation was abysmal, poorly thought out and totally lacking structure. There were teachers who took me aside and tried to warn me of the dangers and risks, and an appopriate training plan. They were very responsible as a school, and only 18 year olds were allowed to try. Did I listen? - heh :) make me laugh! :)

I knew I was very fit because I played rugby. Well playing rugby itself guarantees nothing, but I didn't feel hugely tired after rugby practice, so I played squash before it. I felt a bit tired after rugby then, but not too much.

One of my best friends now, Nick, lives in Budapest. He went to the other major catholic school in England and was captain of the cross country (running) team. He took running seriously at that age, then let go a bit afterwards - like I did.
Now we are both pushing boundaries - he beat me by 50 seconds or so in the Vienna marathon (just under 3 hours 30, I was just over). I suspect he is a better runner than me, though I'm not going to say that to him :) (I hope he doesn't read this blog :) ) We're both going to get better :) and We have both now set the target of 3 hours.

I can continue in this topic in the next blogs on how that marathon at age 18 went.

This week has been brilliant, 6 weeks with minimal running, and now suddenly 6 runs in 7 days. No feeling of the ITB right knee injury. The speed seems to still be there. On Monday, I'll push up to 10km, and see how that goes. I have heard that 45 minutes is a critical limit for ITB injuries.

If all goes well, then maybe I can start a proper marathon training plan.

hey! that reminds me, I have already paid for the Budapest marathon, I wonder what time I can do for that?? :)