Winning the lottery

And there it was. Shining out at me like a beacon in the night.

'CHQ 000339 £30.00'

Cheques are a thing of the past. I rarely use them and its even more of a rarity that I check if they've been cashed or not. However, I'd signed into my online banking specifically to look for this one and the fact that it had been cashed was the signal for a joyous celebration! After all, it signified that I'd been accepted into the London Marathon for 2007!! Gaining entry through the lottery is always difficult. Some say there's no better than a 1 in 5 chance of being successful and because of this I hadn't got myself too excited in the build up to the deadline. Ironically on the very day I discovered I was in for 2007, I found myself unable to run even a single mile, let alone 26. A stomach bug had struck me down and the only running I’d done all day was to the toilet .... several times.

My running over the past couple of weeks has been sporadic. A cold left me feeling tired and sluggish and the weather has took a severe turn for the worst. One positive is that I've been going to the running club once a week and am becoming a member this Tuesday. I'm really enjoying the speed sessions we do and it’s so much easier to achieve target times when there are other runners to cruise along with. What I need to do now is get myself back in the habit of running 5 or 6 times a week. I intend following the Runners World 15 week schedule starting on the 8th January and over the next couple of months need to build up to running around 35 miles per week with a regular long run of around 8 - 10 miles. My plan is to initially follow the 3h 15m schedule and then switch to the 3h 00m plan if I think I've got it in me. This is a reversal of my aborted training plan for the Robin Hood marathon this year. I'm guarding against burnout. My plan for next year is to crack 3 hours, but for London I've set myself the task of going under (as far under as possible) 3:15.

By way of a celebration I felt healthy enough to go for a run this morning and took a long, slow 7.5+ miler in blustery conditions. On the way back I stopped by Churchill Playing fields to take in some Sunday morning football. I watched 15 minutes and the low quality fare on show was enough to reassure me that I’d done the right thing in hanging my football boots up. I needed a new challenge and thanks to the luck of the draw, that challenge for April 2007 is 3:15 at one of the world's best marathons. Bring it on London!