Why?
The answer to this lies with a question that came up suprisingly often.
Q: You do all sorts of stuff, do you run at all?I got tired of that, and besides it was a silly excuse. I needed a better answer.
A: Run!? why on earth would I want to do that, it's a silly sport. You get sore knees and don't get very far!
Q: You do all sorts of stuff, do you run at all?
A: Nah.
Q: Why not?
A: I've completed the toughest footrace in the world, I don't need to run.
I had long known about the MdS but my inability to run from age 10 onwards meant I didn't think I had a cat in hells chance of doing it.
Nearly three years ago my daughter arrived and in the previous 8/9 months I went form being pretty fit too, well frankly, overweight. This was a pretty new experience and I didn't like it, so it was time to change before my blueprint was modified forever!
Running seemed like the sensible way to do this so in May I entered the Wharfedale off road half marathon (punishing!) stepped outside and ran the 10 miles from my house in Hull to Beverley Minster. It hurt, but one month later I completed the Wharfedale half marathon on a hot June day in the sun just under my target time of 3hours.
And now, nearly 3 years later, I am here with hundreds of miles under my belt and a many races (from 8 miles to 50 miles) completed races behind me getting ready for the Marathon des Sables.
At least I'll have a decent answer to the question now.
