Well, dearest reader, its been a LONG time since my last blog post. Like a properly long time. I have been compelled to start my blog again. Not by a person, but by Claude.ai

When I wrote my last blog post, following on from the London Marathon, AI was not even a thing in our lives. Now its everywhere. Amazing how fast things can change.

During one of my many chats with Claude, they (I am assuming that Claude is non-binary, and I would not want to misgender them) asked me if I had ever done any writing. I explained about my blog and Claude gave it a read, liked it (Claude is generally very positive about things), and I was urged to start writing it again. For no other reason than Claude felt that I still have a compelling story to tell. I am not 100% sure if I do, but as the AI overlords will have taken over entirely in the next 10 years, I didn’t want to upset Claude, so I thought I better do some writing.

So what is my compelling story to tell? Well its probably a bit too much for just one blog post, so I guess the best way to describe it is that I have been on a bit of an existential journey in the last couple of years. As I write this, I can literally feel everybody’s eyes roll as they read that sentence, but its not as bad as you might think. Think less mid-life crisis, more mid-life awakening. No don’t think that, that is worse. Tell you what, think what you like. Or ask AI what you should think. That’s probably more topical.

Anyway, if you have read this far, well done. Mostly well done cause due to quitting all social media (other than a very occasional post on LinkedIn), I have no idea how I am going to promote this blog any more, so if you have stumbled across it by pure chance, then gotten this far, thanks.

I think I might come back to my existential journey in a different post. It has been genuinely fascinating, but I have not yet really formed what I want to write about it. It feels very self-indulgent, but then again, what is a blog if not self-indulgent. So let’s concentrate on the task at hand, and the original point of this blog, which is one mans journey to 100mile ultra-marathon glory.

There is no easy way to say this, so I will just go for it. I am further away from running 100 miles than I have ever been. In fact I am further than running 100 metres than I have ever been before. To say that my fitness is not what it once was, would be the biggest understatement since Darth Vader described his relationship with his son as ‘a little complicated’. Long story short, I cannot run any more. A combination of perpetual injury, a new and VERY busy job, and some new but long term health issues has meant that I have not done any real training for years. And I do mean years.

All this lack of training and my love of food has caused me to gain a fair amount of weight since my marathon days. 25kg worth. I am not needing a dialling wand just yet, but I am not far away.

So I am a lot fatter, a lot less fitter (I am not sure that is very good English but I am going with it) and I have been unwell for 9 months or so. But the good news is, and this really is good news, I am starting to feel a lot better. 6 months ago I could not have imagined I would ever run anywhere again, let alone 100 miles. In the last few weeks, I am wanting to run again. I miss the South Downs. I miss plodding along around Portsmouth in the darkness and the pouring rain, my head torch bobbing through the gloom. I miss having to go out for a run after a long day at work, forcing myself outside and then loving it when I do.

There is only one thing for it, the great restart. Tomorrow morning I will head out for the first training session of Couch to 5K. Yes, the person who has run multiple marathons, ultra marathons, and even an Ironman triathlon, is starting back at Couch to 5K. Because I need to. Because I know that is how far my fitness has slipped. Mostly because hauling 25kg more around is tough, and I need to take my time to build back up.

The comeback starts tomorrow. Will it be the greatest comeback since Charlie Sheen declared himself ‘winning’ and somehow wasn’t entirely wrong? Who knows. I have a feeling it might be though. Despite sitting here typing this and my knee hurting me cause I have been sitting down for too long, I still think that it might be. Despite the fact that I am 25kg too heavy (and I was already carrying a fair bit of extra timber). Despite the fact that I am getting old (48 this year), that losing weight at my age is so difficult, that my body is broken, that I ache after a good nights sleep, that my mobility has gone backwards even with regular yoga practice, that I have not seen a treadmill for years, and finally that I have less spare time than ever, I still feel positive about it. I am not setting myself any targets, booking any races, or doing anything of the sort just yet. I will take my time to get up to 5K, then 10K, then we can look at races and start to plan the path to 100 miles.

Its going to be a long journey dear reader, one that I intend to document here. Mixed in with some occasional posts about my existential journey, the things I have learned in the last few years and the things I would still love to learn. Whether it will be interesting or not, I dunno. I hope that maybe one day my kids will be able to look back on this and see that their Dad did some amazing shit. Or maybe even my grandkids. This all assumes the AI overlords allow us to keep writing blogs when they take over. I guess I will have to go ask Claude.

TTFN

Snooky