The decision to run a marathon should never be taken lightly. It took me 14 years to get round to running a marathon. Back in 1996 I was an overweight 23 year old in very bad shape. Healthwise I had just been given a wake-up call after having a series of Transient Ischaemic Attacks or "Mini-Strokes". Being completely paralysed down one half of your body, even temporarily can have a life changing effect on a person. It made me realise I needed to change my ways and to try and get healthy.
I have to say the standard of care and advice I recieved was poor, and it was the flippant remark of a "healthcare professional" that originally inspired me to one day run a marathon, if only to prove the tool wrong.
I took very little time off work and when I returned to work I was sent to the Occupational Health Department. The doctor who assessed me said I was in bad shape physically. I told him I had heard running was a good way to lose weight and asked if he thought it was a good idea. His reply was "you can give it a go, but you will never do a 4 minute mile or run a marathon". So the seeds were sown.
In the following months I took up running, only running 5K. I enjoyed the training and taking part in races. I started to lose weight and within a short period I had lost over 5 stone. I loved running and saw it as my saviour. I loved 5k but struggled to run any longer, I had a crack at 10k but did not enjoy it. I kept up the running for several years with the aim of eventually beating 20 minutes for 5k. This is not very fast but would have been quite an achievement for a non-athlete like myself. However, my PB was 20:39 and I began to grow disheartened when I could not reach my goals.
As I reached 30, I was running less and less. I spent 3 years in the beautiful city of Sheffield surrounded by the Peak District. Despite this I never did much running while there. It was only when I moved to Wigan in 2006 that I started running again. I started training for the 2007 Sheffield Half Marathon, seeing at as an opportunity to return to the Seven Hills for a weekend and to achieve the milestone of running 13.1 miles. I was hooked again.
The next couple of years would prove to be a very trying period for me, but it was running again that proved to be my saviour. More specifically, it was running with other people that was of the greatest comfort during the worst part of my life. Ultimately, running got me through the "other side" and running a marathon became the main focus for spurring me on.
The people I began running with are Andy Lythgoe aka "Fast Andy" and Helen Ross aka "H" - we called ourselves the "NW Hilleaters". We started running at lunch times and built up from 5K to 10k to 10M and eventually Half Marathon. I also joined St Helens Striders, a great running club which has a great training schedule and takes part in foreign runs. The NW Hilleaters enjoyed the running and getting away for the weekend to take part in Half Marathons. Sheffield and Cardiff were the venues for our early away trips and proved so succesful we decided to step up to do the big one.
Alot of research for the marathon took place, very little by myself, the vast majority of it by H, who discovered that Stockholm had some of the best reviews by runners. We all decided that the Swedish capital was a good choice and as I had always wanted to visit the city I was more than pleased. Fast Andy had to drop out at an early stage because he was about to embark on an even more challenging adventure - becoming a Dad. H and I began training in the winter and battled the weather, the worst the country had seen for years.
Looking back at our training logs, you can see how the mileage stepped up. We made alot of training plans, some we stuck to and others we had to change because life happens. As winter turned to spring we began to really enjoy the training. At the weekend we would do a long run. We tried to make the long runs as interesting as possible, as much of them off road as possible. This meant we ran across country paths, canalsides, farmers fields and even a back garden. Quite how we managed to find ourselves in a back garden in Billinge I dont know, we climbed a wall and crossed a stream but still didnt realise we were on private land. We soon got off when we realised.
We also got very creative during our long runs including developing a film idea for a horror flick called "Duck of the Dead". The idea behind it came from the number of ducklings along the canalside. This soon turned into a story about a duck murderer and zomie duck seeking revenge. H has a very active imagination.
There was also alot of chaffeage, blisters and even sunburn during the training. But I wouldnt change a thing about the training. I got to see some of the most splendid looking bits of Lancashire (or Greater Manchester and Merseyside, post Local Goverment Act 1972). I also got to "witter on" to the best listener I know.
As part of our training, we also made the now annual visit to Sheffield, where as always we were supported by Mr H or G-man as he is better known. As always, it was a great trip and was all arranged by H who has missed her vocation in life as a travel agent but who is nevertheless making it up as the social secretary for NW Hilleaters.
Several long runs took place in May. They were hard runs but great in preparing us for how tough running a marathon can be. The weather could not have been any different than those cold, dark days of Winter. We were now having to find shops mid-run to rehydrate such was the heat, some people thought we were barmy, but we thought it was perfectly sane.
June was soon upon us and the time had come for me, H and the best supporter in the world G-man to travel to Stockholm. The weather was glorious all across Europe, and Stockholm looked stunning in the mid-Summer sun. The city is beautiful and fantastically easy to move about in. We arrived in the city during the high school graduation celebrations when thousands of teenagers hang off the backs of lorries dancing and singing. It is a bizarre sight!
Everything to do with the Marathon was well organised: before, during and after. We picked up our numbers from the welcome centre on the day before and started to get a feel of the buzz surrounding the event. There was hundreds of runners milling around, you could hear lots of different languages being spoken. The excitement heightened as we attended the pre race Pasta Party the night before. Somehow I managed to get to sleep that night despite all the nervous energy.
The race begins at 2pm on so you have lots of time to prepare. We visited a deli where we bought lots of pasta. We made our way to the start at a running track adjacent to the Stockholm Olympic Stadium.
H and I and probably all other runners have a pre race ritual called faffing. We began the ritual which includes a toilet visit or two, lots of lubing up and a bit of stretching. H gave G-man a hug and a kiss, I gave him a manly handshake and we made our way to the start, still not fully believing that we were about to run 26.2 miles. The build up to the start is a bit of a haze but I remember it being well organised with multi-lingual announcements. Then the start....
We set off in the crowd of 20,000 runners all jockeying for position in a very civilised Nordic manner. As we turned the first corner we got our first glimpse of G-man who would subsequently pop up cheering us on in a number of different locations along the route. I thought the crowd cheering was a bit muted in the first couple of miles but in reality they were saving themselves for later.
The route is fairly flat with a few sharp hills that cover bridges, they are steep enough to challenge you but not enough to finish you off completely. The course takes in two laps of the beautiful city. The first lap is shorter than the second. I had plenty of energy on the first lap and felt quite good as we passed the Royal Palace and crossed the Västerbron Bridge the first time. The city was buzzing and H and I were in top form, we laughed and joked as we ran through the crowds. I was thinking it was a very pleasant way to pass a Saturday afternoon.
It was on the longer second half of the race that I started to feel the real challenge of marathon running. As we ran through Djurgården Park I started to feel a real dip in energy. The park is beautiful but due to my lack of energy I started to tire of the park. We chatted to an English runner whilst in the park. We also took on all the drinks we had as the afternoon sun beat down. I was really struggling but H kept me going. It was in the park she told me "I have not come here to walk". She denies it now of course. But as we began the second lap I really welcomed the support of H. Oh and G-man continued to pop up to cheer us on.
I believe running is a great way to see a city and this was no exception as we passed the City Hall, the Royal Opera House and the Houses of Parliament.
As we ran we were helped by the music, the crowds, the very attractive canines (one in paticular caught my eye - this is where delirium set in after eating a sugar cube) and the mobile showers. The music played en route included tunes by Deep Purple, AC/DC, Simple Minds and the Van Halen classic Jump which was paticularly uplifting as we neared the end.
The end was tough, very tough. I thought I was going to give up several times. But the tattyhead next to me would not let me give up. She kept me going to the very end, as we enetered the Olympic Stadium, to see the crowds and run around the track I thought I was going to break down. As we crossed the line I shed a tear, the reporter who tried to interview me didnt get much sense out of me. It was an amazing end to a tough but perfect race.
At the end we had our photos taken and received our medals which I will treasure for as long as I live. When we started training I was beginning to get my life back on track and by the end I felt like I had finally got there. It took me 14 years to eventually run a marathon but it was worth the wait.
After we spent a few more days in Stockholm, I went on to travel to Munich and Vienna. H and G-man went on to Barcelona. As I walked the streets of Vienna alone I realised how lucky I had been to share the experience of sharing my first Marathon with two very special peeps. In October the NW Hilleaters went abroad again to Palma where G-man ran his first Half Marathon.
Moving forward, me and Fast Andy will be running the Edinburgh Marathon in 2011, it will be his first marathon and it will be great to share that experience with him. My hope is that one day if circumstance allows, that all the NW Hilleaters, me, H, G-man and Fast Andy can run a marathon together. Until then, I have my memories of Stockholm and also Edinburgh to look forward to.
