I'll Rise

It is 10:56 on October 13^th, 2013 and I am running into the MCG, it is raining (although I wasn't aware at the time), and I am in a great deal of pain. In fact I was almost beyond pain at this point. This was not how I envisaged finishing my first marathon. Not quite sure what I had thought it was going to be; a PB (given it was my first it was, well.... a given), running the race you had actually planned for, or just being able to get that all important race finish photo without anyone else crowding you out. As it was I finished in the middle of a sea of other runners, 5 minutes under the 4:00 hour mark and 15 minutes outside of my goal time. None of this really mattered, I was just so relieved to stop running and start recovering.

Between finishing and finding my wife (some 45 minutes later) was just a blur. I bumped into a few people, all of us with a story to tell, some triumphant, others not quite so. But my overwhelming urge was to just get away from the whole MCG precinct. I don’t know why really, I should have been happy. Finishing a marathon should be celebrated as an achievement, not all of us get to fulfil that dream.

5 weeks after and I am still recovering from the race. I cannot run with any pace without my heart rate going into the ‘red’ zone, my confidence is down and I am still scratching my head somewhat as to what actually happened. The next 45 weeks begins a journey to... What? Redemption? Revenge? I'm not sure it is any of those, but I do want to go back and have another go. This time, armed with an experience under my belt, I feel that I will be better prepared. God, I hope so.....

So, over the next 45 weeks, this blog will chart the progress, the ups and downs and everything else in between. But it won’t be all about running. Although that is the central theme that will run through most of it, it will mirror how much of an impact running has had (and will continue to have) on my life. Hopefully it will be entertaining, sometimes revealing, but most of all it’s a journey. And they are often more enjoyable than the destination.

Oh, and in keeping with my love of music, each blog heading will be a song title. The trick is to pick the artist it belongs to.