Let’s Make it Official
So, it’s here, my email from Cancer Research UK congratulating me about my successful application for a place in the London Marathon 2019.
I’m feeling a bit sick.
Over the past year or so, I’ve come from not enjoying running at all, to it becoming a special place I can go to to unwind, to unpick problems, to be free and to stretch my, somewhat chunky, legs out on the asphalt. I’ve come to rely on my runs somewhat, and when I can’t get a run in, I miss it. This is a reality I never knew could exist.
But… 5K or 10K, or even ~21K, are quite a bit less than 42.1K.
So, how did I get here, and why, and why is it I’m determined to take on the Marathon and submit my body to this level of punishment?
Running? That’s not Me?
Now, cycling is something I’ve done for probably the last 10 years or so. I cycle the hilly 20K to work off and on but I’m not fast. The way in takes me about 50 minutes and it can take me an hour or so to cycle home. Still it’s been helping me get fit and lose a bit of weight, but running???
So, how did I start running? Well the truth is I was impressed. A work friend, Paul (yes, Maisey that’s you!) had done the Couch to 5K in his bid to get healthier and to take on the London Marathon and while Paul was never especially heavy, unlike me, he dropped the weight and became lean and healthy. So, armed with my iPhone, some wireless headphones and some offline movies I headed to the gym and started the C25K programme.
And it was tough! I hadn’t appreciated just how long it had been that I’d run anywhere for any length of time. The C25K programme has you walk, run, walk and continue alternating until you can run with ease for 20–30 minutes. in the beginning, I was running for 60 seconds and walking for 90. It’s embarrassing, but 60 seconds of running was tough and after the first week of C25K I knew that I simply had to keep going, because I figured it couldn’t be good news for me if I was struggling to run for 8 minutes with walks inbetween.
I’m not getting any younger of course, 44 years old, quite a hefty lump at ~100kg (that’s a bout 16 stones in real money) and clearly, quite unfit, the cycling aside. I am doing a lot better than I was however — a few years ago I was 118kg!
I’ve also got plenty of motivation to run and get health, in the form of two young children: two wonderful girls — Grace will be 8 years old in a week’s time(8 going on 27) and Robyn has just turned 5. Daddy is often called upon to carry these bundles of joy on or over his shoulders; on his feet (klingons!), upside down, or in the form of a “Wild Doggy” (on all fours, don’t ask!). It can only be a good thing for me to lose weight and get fit — and I know it.
Roll the clock forwards from my early C25K journey and I can now run, road or treadmill a 5K in under 30 minutes. It’s not fast, but it’s getting faster and I’ve run 10K before now as well and reasonably easily, even if it did take over an hour to do so — it’s a bit short of 42K of course.
And… about that 42K
So, if Paul is responsible for the running, Neil Conaghan and Josh Hill are responsible for the Marathon itself. The story, in short form, is that Neil challenged both Josh and I to run the Marathon (announcing yet, Josh?), to which I said, I would if Josh did (Josh at the time about 4 stones? heavier than he is now), to which Josh said, “I will if Terry finishes” — the fool. Terry was always, always, going to finish. Short of a coronary incident, which thankfully was avoided (though given Terry’s extensive training and dietary programme, nobody, including several leading doctors, is entirely sure how).
Now obviously, I don’t have to do this, but I find myself actually wanting to. It’s a great way to raise money for a genuinely great cause and a great vehicle to get myself fit.
I’ve signed up, and I’ve got my place.
Terrified? You bet, but I’m going for it.
Cause and Effect
So what’s the cause? Well I will be running for Cancer Research UK, to which I am delighted, apprehensive, but more than anything, I am determined.
The effects of cancer can be devastating. I believe it has touched everyone at some level. For myself, my nephew suffered with Lymphoma at a very young age (thankfully he is well many years later); Bladder Cancer took my father’s life a little over 8 years ago (he has never met my children, his grandchildren); my Mother has had skin cancer quite recently and has had a narrow escape with a large benign tumour; and as I write this, my father-in-law is recovering at home after surgery for bowel cancer.
Several close friends have lost their battles with cancer or have been told that there is no more that can be done to help them — certainly not to save them.
I write this knowing that there are people suffering now who have been touched even more personally than I, who are without parents and loved ones or are fighting, and hopefully winning, their own battle.
So I am more than motivated personally, and through the empathy I feel for others. I also have two bright, wild, intelligent and lovely girls to light up my life, and if I can contribute something to help make their future one that is cancer free, then I am happy to do so.
How can YOU help?
Well, I am running, I have donated, I am building a shed so I can get a treadmill in the garage (more on that later) and I am asking all of you for your help, whether it’s 5p or £500 — I’ve a target of £2800, but I want to smash that and then some.
Will you help me to help others beat cancer?
Please donate what you can!
Thank you
Ian Hawley
