I know the New Year might seem such a long time ago now, as we enter the second quarter of the year and welcome in Spring and with it, in Manchester at least, the traditional April showers. However, as I reflect back to the second day of 2012, it was a “defining” moment for me.
After a fantastic and over indulgent festive period, I stood on the scales, I was shocked to see the display informing me that I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life, don’t get me wrong, I’m far from obese, but nevertheless, it hit me in that moment that I needed to do something about it and vowed that my weight would never reach that figure again.
I’ve always been a fairly active person, indulging in many different sports throughout my life, however running has been something I’ve always gone back to and at that moment, stood on the scales, I knew I was going to get straight back on it and that was the way I was going to get back to my “fighting weight”.
In November last year I entered myself into this years BUPA Great Manchester Run but up until that moment at the start of the year, I hadn’t done any training for it. The GMR is an annual 10km running event and this year it celebrates the 10th staging of the event.
The BUPA great Manchester Run is such a fantastic event, supporting an incredible 40,000 entrants! The route starts in the heart of Manchester City Centre on Portland Street, running out passed Old Trafford (my second home) towards the Imperial War Museum, before heading back to the finish line on Deansgate in the city centre. This year will be my third time of taking part.
I first ran the race in 2009 finishing in a time of 00:52:23 and again the following year finishing in a disappointingly slower time of 00:54:07. My aim for this year is to finally break through the barrier of finishing in under 50 minutes and in order for me to achieve this, I knew I would have to take the training more seriously than in previous years.
I am the sort of person that shares my trials and tribulations and that in itself acts as a motivation as I know if I’ve told people I’m running the GMR and I’m going to be aiming for under 50 minutes, people will be expecting me to actually do it!
I started using a Nike+ sport band and chip that is placed in a special hollow in the sole of one of your Nike+ trainers, although I found this really useful in that it gives you a visual breakdown of your run with times per kilometre, the trainers were not quite right for me and were causing me pain in my knees and ankles. I therefore took myself to a dedicated running shop and had my gait analysed, confirming that my trainers were the likely cause of my pain. The assistant recommended a couple of pairs of trainers to correct my over-pronation and off I went with my new pair of runners!
I have a few friends that are very keen runners (marathon times around and under the 3 hr mark!), they are members of Sale Harriers in Manchester and they recommended I join in order to get some varied training and motivation from like minded runners. I was very sceptical and nervous at first, especially considering that SHM have been home to some very successful Olympic athletes! However, I turned up and was given a fantastic welcome, i was asked for my current 5km time and was advised to follow a group that matched my ability. They have several groups of varying abilities from serious runners who compete regularly to people who are just looking to get themselves in shape and like to train with other people.
As mentioned earlier, I started using a Nike+ sport band to track my runs, so you can probably guess, another method I use for motivation is gadgets! I’m a gadget geek and love to use them for all aspects in life! Having attended SHM for a few weeks, I started noticing most people were using GPS watches to track their training, I just had to have one! I’m so pleased I bought one, they are brilliant, the GPS built in to the watch is extremely accurate and can provide you with all sorts of information such as your pace, automatic lap times, it even allows you to run against a virtual training partner informing you how far ahead or behind you are, another excellent motivator!
In order to get some more structured and regular runs into my routine, I signed up to http://www.parkrun.org.uk/ – they organise free, 5km timed runs around the world. They are open to everyone, easy to take part in, safe and brilliantly organised runs that take place every week in pleasant parkland surroundings. Please check out the site and sign yourself up!
So with 4 weeks to go until the Great Manchester Run, my training has been going pretty well. I vary my training between long slower paced runs of around 13km, shorter runs of 7km at increased pace and also “Effort Sessions” with SHM, which involve a fairly short warm up run of between 2km-3km followed with several short, high intensity laps of between 0.65km-1.6km and finish off with a warm down run of equal distance to the warm up.
I’ve had a couple of 10km training runs where I have managed finish under the 50min mark, so I’ve got high hopes for achieving it in this years event.
I hope that in reading this article, you a motivated to get your trainers on and start running, it’s a great way to remove the stresses of work, have some time to yourself (which is kind of relaxing in a strange sort of way) and also improves your fitness and general health. Start small, increasing your distances and time out running gradually to avoid injury and you’ll be fine.
Finally, I’m running the GMR in aid of The Christie, a charity that raise money to fund many projects that fall outside the scope of the NHS. It is a charity that is very close to my heart as they have helped treat and care for some very close friends and family over the years, some of which are no longer with us today.
I would be extremely grateful if you could take the time to visit my JustGiving page http://JustGiving.com/DarrenGMR and sponsor me whatever you can, honestly no amount is too small.
