My favourite part of any new project has always been preparation. With preparation you get all of the buzz of being involved but none of the pain. This goes back to my school days when I would spend hours drawing out a revision timetable. I would then ignore the revision timetable and have to draw it out again.
So, understanding how it works, I started preparing for the Marathon 2 weeks ago. The first thing I did was to declare to everyone, "I am going to run the London Marathon!" This was met with a consistent response. Over the years, my closest friends and family have seen this before. I make grand statements, often very grand statements. Often these statements are followed up with little or no action. The people I love most have learned to tune this noise out. Was this going to be another grand statement?
Usually the person that takes my declarations most seriously is my Mum and this time was no exception. Twenty four hours after telling Mum that I was going to run a Marathon I received a call. "I am going to buy your running shoes!"
I explained to Mum that running shoes were expensive and I was planning to buy some good ones at the weekend. My Mum is one of those people who get an idea in their head and will not take no for an answer. She had decided that I was incapable of choosing and buying the correct pair of running shoes and without them I would suffer a succession of crippling injuries.
Never being one to swim against the tide I caved in and agreed to let Mum buy my shoes. I did however offer something in return. Mums never loose the urge to nurture and my Mum is no different so if she was going to buy me the shoes, the least I could do was let her take me shopping.
Last week, for the first time since I was 13 years old, me and my Mum went shoe shopping. Armed with 10 minutes research on various Internet sites we arrived at JJB Sports and headed straight to the back wall. Here you can find a baffling array of trainers, running shoes, fashion shoes, astro turf shoes and many more.
What followed was 10 minutes of orientation which concluded in the realisation that we didn't have a clue what we were looking for. My Mum decided that we needed to enlist the help of an expert. Turning to the chubby, bald, 50 old wearing a suit stood next to her she asked, "Which are the best shoes for running?"
The nice chubby man looked slightly startled. Obviously he didn't work for JJB Sports so why was this women asking him about running shoes? He was equally baffled by the different types of shoes. Mum concluded that this man couldn't help and like an Exocet missile took aim at a real shop assistant.
The shop assistant in question was a pleasant girl, about 18 years old. I suspect that she was working there to supplement her income whilst at college. Mum called her over and proudly declared, "My son is running the Marathon and needs really good running shoes."
I imagine that this girl has met many people in the course of her work but never a 34 year old fat man buying shoes with his Mother. At best, I imagine that she thought I was a little slow.
Knowing that I needed to recover my credibility quickly I embarked on a diatribe of technical jargon in relation to the type of shoe I needed. I used phrases like "Motion Control" and "Over Pronation" which I had remembered from my 10 minutes of Internet research.
The shop assistant now thought that I was a little slow but had an obsessive technical knowledge of running shoes. She had a look of concern. Maybe I was a little autistic. She gave me a sympathetic smile and asked, "What colour running shoe would you like?"
I replied, "Please bring me anything you have in a size twelve." A short time later she returned with a box containing a pair of silver Nike Air Pegasus+ running shoes. I tried them on, they fitted and I am not ashamed to admit that for the first time in this project I felt a little bit special. There is something about buying expensive equipment that makes you feel you have taken another step towards your goal. My garage is full of dusty, expensive equipment from past projects.
So, understanding how it works, I started preparing for the Marathon 2 weeks ago. The first thing I did was to declare to everyone, "I am going to run the London Marathon!" This was met with a consistent response. Over the years, my closest friends and family have seen this before. I make grand statements, often very grand statements. Often these statements are followed up with little or no action. The people I love most have learned to tune this noise out. Was this going to be another grand statement?
Usually the person that takes my declarations most seriously is my Mum and this time was no exception. Twenty four hours after telling Mum that I was going to run a Marathon I received a call. "I am going to buy your running shoes!"
I explained to Mum that running shoes were expensive and I was planning to buy some good ones at the weekend. My Mum is one of those people who get an idea in their head and will not take no for an answer. She had decided that I was incapable of choosing and buying the correct pair of running shoes and without them I would suffer a succession of crippling injuries.
Never being one to swim against the tide I caved in and agreed to let Mum buy my shoes. I did however offer something in return. Mums never loose the urge to nurture and my Mum is no different so if she was going to buy me the shoes, the least I could do was let her take me shopping.
Last week, for the first time since I was 13 years old, me and my Mum went shoe shopping. Armed with 10 minutes research on various Internet sites we arrived at JJB Sports and headed straight to the back wall. Here you can find a baffling array of trainers, running shoes, fashion shoes, astro turf shoes and many more.
What followed was 10 minutes of orientation which concluded in the realisation that we didn't have a clue what we were looking for. My Mum decided that we needed to enlist the help of an expert. Turning to the chubby, bald, 50 old wearing a suit stood next to her she asked, "Which are the best shoes for running?"
The nice chubby man looked slightly startled. Obviously he didn't work for JJB Sports so why was this women asking him about running shoes? He was equally baffled by the different types of shoes. Mum concluded that this man couldn't help and like an Exocet missile took aim at a real shop assistant.
The shop assistant in question was a pleasant girl, about 18 years old. I suspect that she was working there to supplement her income whilst at college. Mum called her over and proudly declared, "My son is running the Marathon and needs really good running shoes."
I imagine that this girl has met many people in the course of her work but never a 34 year old fat man buying shoes with his Mother. At best, I imagine that she thought I was a little slow.
Knowing that I needed to recover my credibility quickly I embarked on a diatribe of technical jargon in relation to the type of shoe I needed. I used phrases like "Motion Control" and "Over Pronation" which I had remembered from my 10 minutes of Internet research.
The shop assistant now thought that I was a little slow but had an obsessive technical knowledge of running shoes. She had a look of concern. Maybe I was a little autistic. She gave me a sympathetic smile and asked, "What colour running shoe would you like?"
I replied, "Please bring me anything you have in a size twelve." A short time later she returned with a box containing a pair of silver Nike Air Pegasus+ running shoes. I tried them on, they fitted and I am not ashamed to admit that for the first time in this project I felt a little bit special. There is something about buying expensive equipment that makes you feel you have taken another step towards your goal. My garage is full of dusty, expensive equipment from past projects.
So armed with my new shoes, I only had one more thing to complete before getting down to the real hard graft. Draw up a training timetable.
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