A Half Marathon without training? Yes, but.....

It was Friday August 31st. 2012 A slow day at the office, one of those days at the office where even two shots of expresso struggle to keep you focused.

One of those lovely, bubbly personalities that seem to exist in every office looks across the room at me and says -- The great Scottish run is on Sunday, are you gonna run?

Looking back now in retrospect a smarter person would have simply said 'no'. Well that wasn't what I said!

Yours truly was intrigued. Having a type A personality has it's drawbacks one of which is an inability to understand limitations(at least that's what I tell myself).

Seeing I was interested my friendly colleague threw the final piece of bait. She said: so i guess you'll be running the 10k since you've been out of training? Oh shit! wrong thing to say.

Here I was less than 48 hours away from race day, no training, no number and trying to decide if it was worth it running a 10K when there was a Half Marathon waiting to be conquered.

So off to the internet I went and 'googlepedia' the haven of all whom seek knowledge. I googled everything I could about running a half marathon without training for 30 minutes and unexpectedly had very few hits. The advise I managed to glean was if you can get away without doing it, do. Don't risk injury on such a foolhardy venture.

Anyway, I sent an email to my wife before I left the office saying : Honey what do you think of me running a 10k or Half Marathon on Sunday" and I got a reply almost instantly telling me that I was nuts but if I insisted I'd better do the 10K since I wasn't in a position to run a Half.

So putting all the advise into consideration I made my decision, and ignored the advise :).
I'd be damned if I listened to all the naysayers. I was gonna do this and finish, even if I had to cross the finishing line on my knees.

Now for a bit of history. I wasn't exactly a novice runner. I had been running for over a year at that point and had both a 10k and Marathon under my belt. Unfortunately I had not run anything approaching 5 Miles in over 4 months. I was unfit (not ridiculously so) you get the picture.

Not to go into too much detail, there's really nothing you can do with a race less than 48 hours away apart from carb up. I did consuming as much rice, pasta and potatoes as I could. Went to the hotel in town and signed up for the half, was a little shocked to see a queue, I guess the Scots are like Nigerians, always waiting till the last minute.

Race day came bright and early. I woke up (reluctantly), knowing what lay ahead for me. I took a cab to town got to the changing area dropped my stuff off  and hooked up with a friend whom I discovered at the last minute was also taking part. And we were off...

The first couple of miles my friend stuck to me, unfortunately when we got to the 6 mile marker and he that noticed I had began to struggle, he was off with a wave and see you at the finish line. I won't bore you with details of how painful it was or how much I struggled but suffice to say, if after me recounting my experience you still choose to run a half marathon without any training get ready to SUFFER.

I crossed the finishing line in a hybrid of a jog/walk/limp. And yes my friend was at the finishing line waiting for me he had been there for almost 40 minutes :). As I type this I'm still in pain.

To further dissuade the unconvinced amongst us of what a dangerous venture it is. The next morning while googling the event for my race pictures I discovered that a young man had died after completing the event http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-19465413.

Verdict: Do not try this at home. Disclaimer: If you still choose to try this ensure that you are reasonably fit and have a history of running long distances.

Steam swim

Following my move to a new city I registered with a gym close to my flat for a ridiculous amount, I'm usually drawn to bare bones gyms with just the basic equipment and why you may ask, because it's goddamn cheap.

So here I pay treble what I paid in my last gym, but boy was it worth it!!!

On Thursday evening straight from work I walk into the gym hoping for a leisurely swim. The receptionist (yes you heard me) calls me by name and says that I'd have to wait for half an hour while the aqua aerobics class finishes, and the other pool is been used by the swim team. She then suggests I go try out the steam room and spa... hey wait a minute I think, this man here is all for the running, swimming, cycling, odd weight lifting but not spa treatments,no not for me, that's for the plural of"another name to call a cat a kitten"-thank you Naughty By Nature.

Since I planned on swimming only, I hadn't thought to bring my workout clothes so I decided to take a plunge and try out her suggestion. Now don't get me wrong, I've being to spas before, but never alone and usually with ...(clears throat).

What was I going to do? Just sit there and count the minutes?

I finally got changed, and entered into one of the steam rooms, definitely not in the league of Thermae Bath Spa, but how many are. Was still impressed with what it had going for it though.


I spent the 1st 4 minutes in there contemplating how bored I was getting, after that,  the world around me just fell away. I was transported to this world where I had no cares anymore, who cared if Oracle 10g was more robust than 11g or that the backup had not been tested, not me. I was breathing in steam, my body was being purged of everything. Peeps, if you have not tried a steam room after a hard week, trust me, you'll be blown away.


Anyway by the time I left the steam room and headed for the pool, the fat ladies had gone for the evening and I had the pool all to myself(except for the guy showing off his 30 second front crawl #see definition of envy).


I had planned to spend at least an hour in the pool, I barely spent 30 minutes, I felt so sleepy and relaxed.


Lesson here; never steam before swim.

Here we go again

And it's lift off.


I am a very competitive person(what a way to start a blog). , nothing new. I am crazy enough to compete against myself if there's no one around to compete with. 


OK, so what does this say about me? I don't particularly enjoy sports, but I do enjoy keeping fit and I am DRIVEN BY GOALS.


I completed a marathon some months ago. It didn't go as well as I expected, but hey, you can't have everything and I finished in a decent time. However since then I've been completely footloose. Nothing to do.. Pulling my hair out. Annoying everyone I love and who loves me until finally it HIT me. 


Why not go a step further, push your body to the limit. Don't just settle for running 26 plus miles, do something harder, something that will tax your body and spirit to the limit, why not do a triathlon. 
A what I asked myself, this silly habit of talking to myself in the second person when half formed thoughts occur to me.


I began to research a little more into Triathlons, their history, what forms they take ....


How hard can it be I ask myself. Well to be honest, pretty dang hard!!!


It involves a swim of 2.4 miles (3.9 km) in mostly freezing rivers or lakes, a bike ride of 112 miles (180 km) many times up hills or mountains, and a Marathon run of 26.219 miles (42.195 km), yes a Marathon at the tail end of all that.


If a Marathon was hard the first time around, imagine having to add all that dessert to the main course.


Anyway stay tuned for stories of me swimming in a pool for hours and not being able to lift myself out, of running out of steam (literally), and aches and pains in places that were not designed to hurt ;)


Ta