Running Again :-)

Just to recap, I started running back in May 2001 were I trained for Cardiff Marathon in September that year. Training went well and I completed the marathon in a respectable time of 3 hours 38 minutes, if I remember right. Since then I went on to run quite a few other marathons, half marathon and shorter races but never beating my time I set in Cardiff marathon. My best time for a half marathon was 1 hour 34 minutes.

I finally managed to gain entry into London Marathon in 2006 by running for Ty Hafan children hospice. I was hoping to run faster than 3 hours 30 minutes and beat my PB, but it never happened. At 13 miles I was on target for 3:30 but by about 20 miles I started to flag, but thanks to the cheers of the crown, I half ran, half hobbled the final 6 miles and still finished in 3 hours 44 minutes. Running London Marathon was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and something I will never forget. If I got time I might write up more about it.

Because I pushed myself so much in my training and the race, I decided to have a break from running for a couple of months to let my legs recover. During that time my wife got pregnant and my wonderful son was born and I found it more and more difficult to get back into my running. As I've mentioned in previous posts, my fatigue started to get worse, I wasn't sleeping well at night and I started getting very depressed. As a result, my break for a couple of months unfortunately lasted for 5 years!!!

Now I'm back out running, done two 3 1/2 mile runs this week through Penarth Mariner and I am hoping to get my fitness back up to enter Cardiff marathon. Using Endomondo on my HTC Desire, a GPS tracking app which logs run including, distance, times, running speed and route, my workouts were:

Monday 23 May - 3.44 miles in 32m:28s
Thursday 28 May - 3.55 miles in 30m:20s

I'm improving already.

I've put my motivation for my running thanks to the inspiration I received from the Sri Chimnoy disciples and the races I helped organise. I now go out running not with the aim to run further or faster, although I do like to achieve this, but for the enjoyment of running and using it as a meditation to "unlock the true potential of the human spirit" (Sri Chinmoy).

Although I've only been running twice, I have never felt better and I will be going out for another run tonight. This is another positive step along my Journey to Enlightenment