After this mornings race I couldn’t wait for my recovery 10k. As I mentioned in a post earlier in the week a recovery run is using muscles that are fatigued from a previous hard workout. This means the recovery allows you to ‘smell the roses’ so to speak and also is doing you some serious good. Too good to miss really.

At the race earlier in the day I was speaking to a running hero of mine Chris Maher.  Chris has a marathon best of 2:34 at 38 and was still running sub 2:40 marathon times well into his forties. When I was first starting taking running seriously in 2008, pre my first Comrades campaign, Chris would regularly kick my butt on the shorter distances. He still loves his racing as much today as in his prime , just now his competition is women and younger kids,  as well as runners of his vintage. (albeit a good standard as Chris still ran a 3:03 marathon recently in his sixties) He gets the same thrill of the chase as I or any runner does when they are tested by competition and their own goals.

In 2013 I thought I had peaked and after winning the Bunbury Marathon in that year (my one and only marathon victory) I was ready to step up for a sub 2:40 marathon assault. This ended in a couple of near misses,  2:41.58 and 2:41.14, but ultimately I lost my love of racing and running in general as I failed on 3 or 4 more occasions to go sub 2:40. I wrote of 2014 as a bad year after such a good previous year. In 2015 Raf from the Running Centre took me under his wing and although i never broke the 2:40 he steered me to a new way of training which I have continued to use and has started to reap rewards.

So 2016 has seen me break my 5k, 10k and half pub’s. All times I thought beyond me. How long can this continue ? Who knows but I’m enjoying the challenge and like Chris love the competition and if I can keep at the front of the pack for a year or two more so be it, but when I eventually return to the pack look out because I’ll be coming for you….