Running Man – lll

More from Marathon Mike Tattam as he prepares for April 22.

Firstly I’d like to thank all the donors for their kind support last month: Ian Church of Snows Timber, Steve Durdant-Hollamby of AWMS, John Newcomb of the BMF, Mike Rice of Factor3, Mark Hall of SRS Recruitment, Colin Hambling, Andy Poolman, Martin Earl, Dennis Smith, Fiona Pentney, Tim Dipple.

 

Well we’re into a new year and I’m now on countdown to the London Marathon. As Lao Tzu said: ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step’ well I don’t know about a thousand miles but I do know that it does with 26 miles and 385 yards! April is coming round quickly and last month while my right knee improved, my left Achilles started to ache and is now quite sore. But training continues, and I wore out a pair of running shoes just before Christmas…great timing!

 

In December I ran 55 miles, a lot less than I wanted but with a sore leg as an excuse, Turkey, roast potatoes, a sprout and Christmas pudding maybe I was expecting too much. My Christmas presents mainly related to new running gear – support socks (sexy, not!), a snook (goes around your neck and you can put it over your mouth in cold weather), numerous tops and a head torch all of which have been tried and tested and sets me for my training over the remaining winter months.

 

Talking of a head torch this would have come in handy much earlier than Christmas as my foot stepped firmly in something squidgy one evening. I still don’t know whether it was a discarded McDonalds bag or a pile of horse manure….it was difficult to tell! And not for the reason you may be thinking, but because I then put my foot in a very large wet puddle. So whatever it was washed off, thank goodness.

 

When running in December, I tried to take my mind off the breathing and pain by counting Christmas trees in peoples windows. I can tell you that on the 23^rd of December I counted 51 on a five mile run and the week before they’d only been 28. Yes all this running is great fun and makes for lively evening conversation with my wife in the evenings – or not…!

 

So I’m now looking forward to the lead up to the marathon and will start to increase my monthly mileage as well as introduce new training routines such as Fart lick or should that be Fartlec, I’ll check and let you know!

 

Speak to you all next month and please don’t forget to go to my JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mike-tattam and donate as much as you can in aid of a very worthy cause. Thank you.

 

Mike

 

Mike Tattam is Sales & Marketing Director of Lakes Bathrooms, one of the sponsors of the BMJ Industry Awards