James is running the Dublin Marathon for Mental Health UK

Mission Accomplished?

I have to start this post by sharing the crucial news that I participated in and completed the Dublin Marathon on Sunday. There were many, many contributing factors that made this possible. Your support, both moral and financial, was a considerable motivation throughout my preparation and during the race itself. 

Preparations had not been ideal. The injury that I sustained earlier this year, for which I have been receiving physiotherapy, simply would not go away. Jordan from Functional Movement in Liverpool has been brilliant with me over the past 5 months. Helpful, honest and pragmatic. 

During the longest run of my training, a 32km (20 mile) run, I reached 28km and my knee simply would not run any further, leaving me to walk the remaining 4km. The next day I had a physio session and was advised not to compete in the marathon. I’m sure my face gave an accurate picture of my emotions: a mixture of disappointed and determination. If I was insistent on running the marathon, we needed to make a damage limitation plan for the remaining two weeks of preparation. 

A programme of targeted exercises, short runs, a deep tissue massage (very painful) and the use of kinesiology tape relieved a lot of tension that I was holding in my left leg. I felt confident and relaxed as I traveled to Dublin on the Friday. The planned strategy for taking pain killers before and during the run helped me overcome any fears I had that the pain in my knee would become too much and prevent me from finishing. The final hurdle was purely a psychological one. 

Jumping right back to the time earlier this year when I signed up for this, my target had been to finish in around 3 hours 30 minutes. Following my injury I was happy to accept that I would do well to just complete the distance, let alone beat my previous marathon time of 4 hours 13 minutes. I like a challenge though, so I set myself a target time of under 4 hours.

On the day of the race, I felt as prepared as I could be. Even the threat of rain didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. (Forgive me if I start to get technical here) I lined up ahead of the 3:50 pacers, knowing full well they would pass me at some point. That point came around 6 miles into the race, but I managed to stay with them for another 5 miles. It was as we passed the halfway mark that my pace started to drop and the 3:50 pacers disappeared into the distance. Now I just had stay ahead of the 4:00 pacers.

My next challenge was to stay composed and not allow the doubts to creep in. Approaching 18 miles and I started to think back to my training run where my knee gave up. Would my preparations pay off? Would the painkillers do their job? I was elated as mile after mile went by with almost no discomfort. I was feeling strong and I knew if I could keep a steady pace I would reach my target. Event the formidable ‘Irish Heartbreak Hill’, where one spectator held a placard reading ‘Welcome to Hell’, wasn’t enough to deter me. I called upon all my reserves of energy and powered towards the finish.

I finished strongly with a chip time of 4:00:07 and a gun time of 4:02:00, but crucially, I completed 26.2 miles / 42.2km in 3:59:03 - naturally that is the time I’m going with. I achieved my target and I am so happy. 

I had also set myself a target of raising over £1000 by the time race day came and I felt so proud to achieve that. Raising a significant amount of money for Mental Health UK is what it was all about and I want to thank you all for your support. My overall target of £1350 is very close now and I feel with another push I can reach that in the coming weeks as I have currently raised £1238 including gift aid.

I will thank you all individually but for now, if you have taken the time to read through all of this nonsense, you’re a better person than me and your donation to Mental Health UK will make a real difference to people’s lives. Thank you.

Trust the process

A milestone

Today I ran the Half Marathon distance today for the first time since March. 

It was a slog, but I pushed myself hard to get it done. It felt like a milestone I needed to reach before the end of June, with 17 weeks to go until Dublin Marathon. It didn’t feel good physically and, as a result, it didn’t feel much better mentally. 

I have so much gratitude for those who have already supported my fundraising campaign for Mental Health UK. I also continue to be grateful to the staff at Functional Movement Physio in Liverpool - in the past few weeks Jordan has given me confidence in my training aims and body is getting stronger every week. I'm conscious of relapsing by overtraining but I am committed to doing what is required to reach my goal.

Mental Health Awareness Week

£50/mile (+1)