Week 18 - Get yer motor running.

And we are done, the 3 mile (round Bridge of Allan) and 2 mile (track) warm downs were taken care of without incident and I am ready to go. Hal, you promised me that if I did your programme then I would be able to finish this with something to spare, so time to show me the money.

Speaking of which - fundraising target of £500 has been met right on queue, so that is a nice fillip and the gear is all washed and ready. Myeloma UK have been excellent and I look forward to meeting the other runners. I also have sufficient self-interest to join them for their pre-race photo-call on Sunday morning.

I've elected to use the Asics shoes, as the New Balances have now done over 500 miles and will probably not give me the support I need.

The programme totalled 486 miles, but I was over 520 for the 18 week period by race day, so no one can say I haven't put in the miles and I have done all but one of the long runs, and certainly all the looooonnnnggg runs. The family have done well to tolerate all this nonsense, including the rather dull chat about it all, and I hope their day out is up to scratch too.

Expect a full report on the event itself. Bet you can't wait.

Week 17 - Don't push it, don't force it.

We are in full taper mode now, so did a sneaky 6 miles on Monday - golf course, quarry, Kersebonny - and I let the rest of the week take care of itself with a quick 3 miles while no. 1 son played footie and 4 miles in my lunch hour on the Wednesday round Bridge of Allan. The club session was a simple warm up and an easy run.

The weekend run was scheduled to be 8 miles. The fact that we were away camping with the kids had to be factored in, but given the 7am start on these trips and the fact that the we'ans were tucked up in their sleeping bags fast asleep, we were able to slip out for an hour along the cycle lanes of Dumfrieshire, around Hoddom, in the morning sun (the frost had gone by then!). It did involve some hills, but nothing too hard.

Of more concern is a niggling groin pull (not normally cause for complaint) that will need to be properly rested before race day, which is now upon us. A week of guzzling and stretching lies ahead. I still have half a birthday cake to eat.

Week 16 - Groundhog Day

We are beginning to ease off now, though it doesn't feel like it. Monday was a wee session of strides at King's Park, just to annoy the golfers and a job back along Kersebonny.

Wednesday saw me jog over the Pendriech dam, to get some hill work in and finish in good order. This was also the day of the Dumyat Hill Race, an annual event for me. Not this year, I'm finely tuned for flat racing and a hill race this close to marathon day would be asking for trouble - would Shergar have been asked to jump fences? Exactly. I did miss not doing it, though, especially as I had promised to assist my friend in getting a good time and with all this training I might have beaten my own best. Next time....

Thursday saw an easy enough diagonals session at the club (while, somewhat bizarrely, running through every Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Steve Martin film we could name).

With the long, long runs now complete, the 12 miles over North Third with Lesley on Sunday seemed straight forward enough. It is certainly a bonus of the long mileage to be able to do 10, 12 or 14 miles with some ease. I'll need to find a way of maintaining that.

Week 15 - Easy like Sunday morning.

20 miles on the marathon course was the weekend target and the build up was nice enough with a hour or so (8 miles) while the kids swam on Monday. I have become adept a squeezing in runs when it is least disruptive domestically, though my family may not agree.

There is no denying it, the training, even at my lowly level is enormously time consuming. Relentless planning and preparation, you become a slave to the programme, grumpy and irritable when behind and a crashing bore when ahead of schedule. And the washing, don't get me started...

A break on Tuesday and a quick lunchtime 5-miler on Wednesday, missed the session on Thursday (domestic commitments!) meant 5 miles was needed on Friday night, this took a bit of doing, but just about managed it (just round town and along Kersebonny) though, again, this was not popular at home.

So to Musselburgh first thing on Sunday (7:30 departure from home, running by 8:30) to try out the course itself. We did ten miles out to Longniddry and back again, completing 20 miles with a wee circuit of Queen Margaret University's new campus. It is nice and flat (the route, not the campus) with some diversions as you pass through the towns of Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton. It is still a struggle to get to the 20 mile mark, leaving that element of doubt about doing another 5 miles, but if it was easy it wouldn't be a challenge, right?

Eating and drinking en route is a problem, I can't carry water (just too annoying) so I'll be relying on water stations, but it means I have not been able to replicate this in training. I have experimented with gels such as the Honey Stinger range, but it is not clear to me when the best time to take these is, and they taste so foul that they will have to coincide with a water stop (and maybe some mouth wash). We'll see, large bowl of porridge and syrup remains the breakfast of champions.

Week 14 - Music was my first love.

In general, my weekly mileage is now upwards of 35 miles and this week topped 40. The knees are holding up and with only one more really long run to go, it looks like the whole adventure might have a successful outcome.

This week saw an easy Monday run, which has become something of a routine, despite the programme insisting on it being a rest day. I tend to use Tuesday as a rest day instead. Anyway, a wee run around Swanswater was followed by a late evening run through town (always fun to dodge the outpourings from the pubs) and Riverside to my folks place to collect the bike left there earlier. The rush to get to Forthbank for the last game for the mighty Binos caused a bit of chaos there. Skipped the session on Thursday in order to complete 8 miles and retrieve the week's running, meetings etc threatening the proceedings earlier in the week. I experimented with music on this run, just to see what the effect was. I've never run with tunes, always assumed it would mess with the rhythm of the run. And it does, your feet are compelled to keep time to the music (at least mine are - maybe I got the music in me?). It did make the run rather fun, and I did like coming through the woods to the strains of The Devil Came Down to Georgia, but I fear it may not be the way serious competitors do their thing.

The weekend run was a nice 14 miles around the town and Bridge of Allan with Lesley (for I am the running gigolo). Even though the mileage was well within what I am now capable of, it was still preety sore by the end. Look forward to the taper weeks ahead. 4 weeks to race day!

Week 13 - On and on and on.

This week was a build up to the mammoth effort required to master the 19+ mileage expected at this stage in proceedings and it was done in Aberdeen on holiday at the in-laws.

A bad start as I left the running shoes at home, turned out to be something of a result as I picked up a pair of Asics trainers for a tenner in a clearance store, should have those nicely run in by race day. Anyway, 5 miles along the beach and 7 miles around my old city haunts (interrupted by helping an old lady who'd fallen, I'm such a good citizen) and things are looking good.

The club session was shuttles, which I quite like and I ensured mileage was up to the mark by running home from the session.

So to the weekend and a bus trip to Callendar and the long run home via the back road to Deanston and Gargunnock the farm roads to the Raploch. 20 miles up! I did enjoy it overall, though the slog along the farm roads into the wind wasn't much fun. I managed to work out a way of carrying food (in the form of fruit energy bars) in a waist belt. Normally don't like anything being in the way, but this was OK and I planned to buy water en route. Garage at Doune was shut and ended up scoofing water from the tap in a nearby caravan park. It was like Ray Mears, surviving in the wilds of the Trossachs. Great to see so many cyclists out at that time too, there is a whole Sunday morning underworld of runners and cyclists.

Week 12 - Oh, what a beautiful morning.

A step-back week this week, with things a little easier. 5 quick miles round town on the Monday was followed by a storming 8 mile session at first light on Wednesday.


Around the Carse of Lecropt on farm roads in the perfect morning quiet, with a cloudless sky above and yellowhammer, pheasant, blue tit, great tit, dunnock, curlew, skylark all twittering their lungs out. Throw in rabbits and squirrels bounding away as you pass and you start to feel like Bambi gamboling through the forest. Sort of. It was truly glorious and reignited my enthusiasm for the whole affair.

This week's long run was a loop round the town followed by the North Third route. I was joined by part of it by an erstwhile running compadre who first showed me this route some years ago. She is in half-marathon training, so it was good to get a long run in. We were not attacked, as some have been on this route, by nesting buzzards. They don't put that in the running books.

Myeloma UK, (http://www.myelomaonline.org.uk/) the primary beneficiaries of all this effort, have been great throughout the training providing support, encouragement, advice and, this week, a skyrie orange running vest. You'll not miss me come race day.

Week 11 - Only women bleed?

This was a tough week, starting with a few strides in the park on the Monday to get the legs moving again after the weekend. So far so good, even Tuesday's rather pleasant jaunt from Forthbank (the theatre of dreams) up through Milhall and Shirra's Brae and back through town left me feeling fine.

Wednesday saw another early start in order to keep up the miles, 8 of them along Swanswater in very pleasant sunshine. Pleasant that is until about 6 miles, when I was overcome by violent stomach cramps of near-Paula proportions, I think you know what I mean. I was too far past the Pirnhall Inn to go back and not close enough to home. Caught between two stools, you might say, if you were speaking scatologically. Result was cries of agony ringing around the Cambusbarron quarry and carefully timed spells of walking in order to prevent a nasty accident. Much too close for comfort. Nice sunrise, though.

The club session salvaged some pride, being 8 track laps of sprinting the straights and jogging the bends, which was fine. I foolishly played football the next day and felt the presence of my hamstrings (and not in a reassuring way) so was glad of a rest before the big one on Sunday.

18 miles done on the Sunday, in snow and sleet and rain and sun ... from home along the back road to Dunblane and back again. I experimented with eating and drinking, taking an energy bar at around the half-way point and I was aware of a wee buzz for the following few miles. What I wasn't aware of at the time was the state of my nipples. Not until I stopped and the blood dried and stuck my t-shirt to my now-shredded chest did I become aware of what I had done to myself. A solution will need to be found by next week.

Week 10 - Fat Man Running.

It is an affliction. A disease. An obsession, even at my level. 6 miles on the Monday and a realisation that Wednesday was going to be problematic lead to me getting up at 6am to run 9 miles before work. Felt fantastic at around 11, but 3pm was a different story. My long suffering wife is beginning to work about all the training, not least because it wakes her up at that time too. Can she not see the joy in looking at the clock and rolling over knowing you've got another hour's kip to come.

Same again to get 5 miles in on Friday morning, to keep the mileometer ticking over. All of this was building to the longest run to date - 17 miles on the Sunday. Caught the train to Falkirk (having negotiated to purchase a ticket the night before) and ran home via Stenny, Larbert and Plean. An extra loop round town and Kersebonny made up the necessary miles, or so I thought. Alas, I forgot to do the Cambusbarron loop and what I thought was 17 was actually 15 and a half. Amateur. Am a twit, more like.

Running through town means that you inevitably catch yourself reflected in shop windows. Very depressing. Hundreds of miles on the clock, body finely tuned but catch yourself in the plate-glass window of the local New Look and you are nothing but a fat man running.

Week 9 - Allo-ha.

Back on track this week, leading up to Easter. Straight-forward enough to get 5 miles in on Monday and a quick 3 miles with No.1 son was playing football on the Tuesday. That run past the new Forthside development will be so much nicer when some of the new path network is completed.

Work interfered with Wednesday's longer run, but being off work Friday allowed me to squeeze in almost nine miles on that morning. Not bad, considering I'd done a longer-than-average run at the club session the night before. The weekly average is now consistently over 30 miles and the knees are holding out. There is something to this training and preparation lark.

The week ended with the Alloa Half Marathon, completed in a best-ever 1 hr and 40 minutes, plus some seconds. Can't complain about that and, with hindsight, I quite enjoyed the chase against the clock along the Hillfoots (why is that not Hillfeet?) from Tillycoultry to Menstrie where I realised I was going to have to maintain 7:40 miles on tiring legs for the remainder of the race. Nice t-shirt too.

Week 8 - Reality check.

This week real life, and work, get in the way. A work excursion to Milton Keynes meant two runless days (why didn't I take my kit?) and the resulting catch-up did for the Wednesday run.


I punished myself at the club session with a full 7 reps of the Memorial Park in Bridge of Allan on the Thursday and set myself for the 15 mile stretch that the weekend was supposed to cover.


Sunday was the Sport Relief mile, and I completed this (3 miles in all, on Glasgow Green) with my son and daughter. Good fun, but not the scheduled slog I was supposed to be doing. Knocking out 10 miles that evening didn't really do the necessary, but it did keep the mileometer ticking over, albeit 10 miles short of the weekly mileage required. I'm a slave to the programme.


The other interesting thing this week (is any of this interesting?) is the offer of £3 a mile sponsorship - a princely £78 if I finish the marathon - from a colleague, provided I help him get a PB in the Dumyat Hill race. I'm no coach, I can demotivate myself very easily, but this is a tempting offer. I didn't intend running this race, it is too close to marathon day, but I'm quite happy to shout abuse at him from half-way up the hill.

Week 7 - Steady as she goes.

A good steady week, with nice runs round the town on Tuesday and Wednesday and a good club session on the Thursday, fartleking around Riverside.


Fartlek is where you run at pace for sections of your run, between agreed points. It can be a nice way of speeding up the run and making the whole thing a bit more enjoyable, despite the comedy name. It is a Swedish word meaning "speed play". But you knew that, you can use wikipedia just as easy as I can.


The aforementioned session was interrupted by a drunken ned who took it upon himself to try and create a bit of bother. Too fast for him, I'm afraid, but it must have been quite a spectacle, librarian being chased over the Old Brig in Stirling by Buckfast-boy.


The week ended with another 13 and a half miles over North Third. Nice as this run is, it is time to look for a new route as the longer runs now enter unknown territory - 15 miles and more.....

Week 6 - Run, Fat Boy, Run.

Like some creeping addiction it gets hold of you, the need to run. Despite creaking knees and demands to spend time more productively in other ways, the week starts with 5 straight days of running. Over 8 miles on Monday around Riverside and the castle in Stirling, a quick 3 mile loop around the new Forthside development (see how the fantastic new bridge is coming along) and the same Wednesday 6 and a half miles as last week.

Missed the club session and settled for a few miles on the treadmill, just to remind myself how very dull that sort of running is and that I don't like doing it.

The week ended on a high with participation in the Lasswade (http://www.lasswade-ac.org.uk/) 10 mile road race on Sunday morning. I have factored in a couple of races as part of the training (also doing Alloa Half Marathon in a couple of weeks) to keep the speed work going and to add some spice to the longer runs. The course is pretty hilly, with a nasty climb at 3 miles and a long slog at mile 5-6, but enjoyable nonetheless and followed by a very nice buffet including cream scones, lovely. Happy enough with a finish time of 1 hour and 15 mins.

Week 5 - 30 miles!

The week started with the odd knee twinge on an otherwise fine run over the dam at Pendreich behind Bridge of Allan. It was nice to be "off-road" for a spell and the views were great. I do take the point that in preparing for a road race most training should be done on the road, but it was nice to get a break on some softer ground.


The midweek runs are getting longer than work lunchhour permits, this week's 6 and half miles through Cambuskenneth and Cornton was borderline. Next week will move the Wednesday run to the evening, which will impact at home, hopefully not too seriously. I'll just have to get a move on.

A good club session was followed at the weekend with almost 13 miles on Sunday morning over North Third. There are few things sweeter that gliding along in the morning sun, birds a-twittering and the reservoir glittering. Well, I'm sure there are sweeter things, tablet for example, but it was pretty good anyway.

Week 4 - Up the hill backwards.

For some 5 miles is a long run, it certainly is for me on some days, but in preparing for a marathon I'm given to understand that the weekend long runs (getting longer by the week) are the key to success.

Hal's model suggests progressively longer runs, with a step back evey third week - so 8, then 9 then back to 6, then 11, 12 and back to 9 and so on. This week's long run was 12 miles and we ended up doing 13 over the back road round North Third and down through Bannockburn. In a fit of enthusiasm, I elected to go the tough way round this well worn course - anti-clockwise where the hills are steeper. They were steeper than I recalled, but the run was done without too much of a problem on the day, but the old knees are beginning to show wear and tear and I'll need to be a bit more careful about taking rest days. Still, halfway there.

Other than that, the week's runs went fine, I did 3 miles as a figure of eight round the campus loch at Stirling University on the Friday which I haven't done for years, too short a distance for us finely tuned athletes, don't you know.

Week 3 - Getting tougher.

An unnecessary long run on Monday (7 miles) meant that this week's rest day was on the Tuesday, not part of the schedule but changing the running schedule is about as rock-an-roll as I get. Straightforward enough 6 mile run round Bridge of Allan on the Wednesday and and easy 3 miles at the club (Central AC) session on the Thursday.

The interesting part of this week was the weekend away in Weardale, Frosterley to be precise. Saturday morning saw 7 and half miles in glorious sunshine on the back road from Frosterley to Stanhope and we knocked off 4 and half miles on the Weardale way in the direction of Wolsingham on the Sunday. Again lovely, and set me up nicely for the hefty breakfast of Michael Moore's square sausage with haggis. To die for (or is that to die from?).

I say we. Many runs are done alone, but I have also done a good number with friend, neighbour and Central AC compatriot Liam, who has been instrumental in dragging me on runs that I might otherwise have talked myself out of doing. I owe him a debt of gratitude. I think.

Week 2 - The Road to Aberdeen

So far, so good. Currently just slightly ahead of Hal's less-than-punishing schedule. 3 miles on Tuesday, 5 on Wednesday and another 5 (made up of hill reps) on Thursday.


The weekend's long run was special as I was be in Aberdeen and I mapped out a 9 mile route up the Old Deeside Line. If you are ever in the city, this is highly recommended. The path starts at the Duthie Park and runs out of the city as far as Peterculter, some 10 miles out. The original stations and platforms are all still there, but you should resist the temptation to make choo-choo noises as you pass through the stations, it attracts attention. It's a fine run, and much less windswept than the beach, where most Granite City runners seem to go.


This is my first marathon and many have said that it is folly to take on such a challenge at my age (42 by race-day), but given that I'm not taking this up from a standing start (so to speak) I should be OK. It seems to be the thing to do if you run at all, even at my rather lowly level. Also, if I don't do it soon, I'll sink into alcohol-soft middle-age and never get it done.

Week 1 - Baby, it's cold outside.

And we are off! 18 weeks of pavement pounding action ahead, leading to the ultimate goal of completing my first marathon. I'm following Hal Higdon's novices training schedule, available online at http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/novices2.htm I flatter myself that I am a step up from a complete beginner, but that won't stop the guy in the chicken suit from passing me with 2 to go.

In an attempt at spending some time with my children and staying married into the bargain, the plan is to squeeze as many runs into otherwise "dead" time. So Tuesday's 3 miles is neatly placed in the hour that Lewis spends playing football at Forthbank, Wednesday's 5 miles can be chalked up in a lunch hour and Thursday's 3 mile session will be part of the session at Central to which I am committed in any case.

Sunday morning and the programme expects me to do 8 miles, or just over an hour. A modest target, when compared with the mileage that I've been doing on monst Sunday mornings (in all weathers) over the winter. Should be a breeze.

Or it would be, if I wasn't suffering from a stinker of a cold.