9. Get Those Knees Up!

15th April 2014

I have never been one to really set goals.  And I certainly don't very often follow it through, and put in the hard work to achieve those goals.  But for once, something lit a fire inside me for this one, and I really feel like I will do it justice...

At the start of the year, I said to myself that I would try and get back into running.  Last year, in March, I ran the half marathon in Eastbourne, my home town.  With a bit of motivational help from my mate J, I semi-seriously started running and managed to get in shape enough to run the bloody thing.  It wasn't fast (1 hour 59 minutes and 21 seconds, not that it is etched into my brain or anything) but I got round, I ran the whole way and I was pretty damn pleased with myself.  But afterwards, instead of carrying on and getting better, I did what I usually do, and just let the thing fizzle out completely.  I didn't run again til about October, and even then it didn't last too long.

In January, I told myself that things were going to be different this time.  I am sure we have all done that at the start of a fresh new year.  But from nowhere, I got a sudden desire to set myself a target, work hard at it, and prove to myself that I could do it.  I started to run again, this time I would record every run I did in a spreadsheet, so I could see if I was actually making any progress.  And it really helped.  The first week, I ran twice, approximately 5km runs each time, and I jotted down the times in the spreadsheet.  The next week, I ran two 5km runs again, but at the end of the week, I wanted to see an improvement, so I ended up running a 10km too.  And with the exception of a couple of weeks where I only ran twice, I ran 3 times every week.  And I could see the times coming down, almost weekly!  Sometimes only a few seconds knocked off, sometimes whole minutes, and I tell you, it really spurred me on to keep training.

So on Sunday, I lined up with roughly 5499 other people, and ran the Budapest Spring Half Marathon.

I had set myself a goal a while back, but I only told B recently that I wanted to finish it 13 minutes faster than last year.  That's one minute per mile quicker than I managed in March.  I guess to some that might not sound like a great deal, but I knew it would be pretty tough to do, and I also knew I was in with a great chance of doing it, as I had come pretty close in training.

I arrived on Margitsziget (where the race was due to start) about an hour before the kick off (or should that be foot off?).  In hindsight it was probably a bit early, as I already had my race number, I ended up just milling about for the most part, but it was nice to take in the atmosphere.  It was pretty chilly too, so I tried to keep moving and stay limber for the 9.30 start.

When it came time to line up, I had to start from quite close to the back of the group.  This was because when I signed up, the organisers ask you what pace you run at, and at the time, I was just shy of 'couch potato', so they lumped me in with the other spuds.

When the horn sounded to start, the sun also came out, and it was a really great sight to behold.  Everyone had a smile on their face, just happy to be part of such a huge event in the early Spring sunshine.  It was incredibly crowded, and I knew that the road on the island wasn't too wide, so I tried my best to push forward and get past some of the starting horde.  I darted left and right, weaving my way in and out and I managed to make good progress while the crowd was still shuffling forward in the early rush.

There were pace markers during the race, guys you can follow if you want to guarantee you beat a certain time.  I told myself to try and catch up to the 1 hour 45 minute guys, they were a few minutes ahead of me due to the crowded start line, but I knew if I could catch them up, I would achieve my goal and knock off those 13 minutes (cue internal Rocky soundtrack).

So I pushed on, as the temperature heated up.  The first kilometer sailed past, I had a stopwatch so I knew I was going pretty quick.  Kilometer 2 passed as well, and the crowd was thinning out a bit, making it a bit easier to run comfortably.  For some reason though, instead of slowing down a bit and pacing myself, I felt so good in the atmosphere and the sunshine, that I just kept going hard.  I felt so good, and especially when I saw B on the wall on the side of the Duna, shouting for me to keep going, I told myself I would just push this as hard as I could go.

Let's play Where's Wally?  I am in there somewhere..

The kms kept on falling away.  A funny thing happens to me when I run, especially when I run a long distance.  I am always counting.  So the first half of the race, I am counting up to the halfway point.  I tell myself that, once I get to the halfway mark, I can start counting back down again, and it seems easier from there.

It wasn't easier.

I caught up the 1 hour 45 pacemakers at about kilometer 10 (sorry to the English, I am fully converted to kilometers now).  I knew then that I was pushing too hard, and I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace.  But I persevered, because if a miracle happened and I could keep it going, I would finish in a time I never thought possible.

It wasn't possible.

The wall didn't hit me until about 16 or 17 kms in.  It was around the Parliament building that the pain started to build.  My legs were becoming heavy, my lungs were willing but I was running low on energy now.  And I still had 4 to go.

I knew it was going to be tough, those last 4 kms, and with the sun now blazing down, every minute felt like 10.  My head was telling me just to stop, have a walk, take a break, but my heart said no.  I kept running, admittedly at a slower pace than the first half of the race, but I was still going, and I wasn't going to give up now.

I have to admit, that it was quite humbling in the final stretch, as I was now being passed by many, many people who I had previously sailed past earlier in the race.  A lesson learned, most definitely, for the next one.

I could now see the finish line, and a quick check on my watch told me that I hadn't lost as much time as I thought I might have done.  I didn't quite have enough left in the tank for a final sprint, even as B yelled encouragement from the sidelines, but I never stopped running.

And I finished the race in 1 hour, 41 minutes and 19 seconds.  Officially!

I hadn't run the race in the style I intended, but I am so, so happy that I can say I knocked off 18 minutes from last year's time.  And I learned a valuable, and painful, lesson.

Tonight, I just got back from a small recovery run, 5km at a VERY gentle pace, and the legs felt ok.  A bit achey, but not painful, and I know that I can continue to run.  That I will continue to run.  Because I have not yet achieved my goal that I set myself this year.

In July, it will be 10 years since we lost my dad.  He battled with illness for a long, long time, but thanks to a liver transplant he received, it meant we got to spend more time with him that we all thought we would ever get.  Unfortunately, he lost the battle of his health to cancer, but I am sure that my whole family are appreciative of the treatment he received from Kings College Hospital, for giving us those extra years.

There isn't a day goes by that I don't think of him, and I really want to do something to mark the anniversary.  So on 12th October 2014, I will run the full Budapest Marathon, and I will be trying to raise money on behalf of Kings College Hospital.

There are so many worthy causes that I could do this for, but for me, this is the one.  The NHS is an amazing thing, something perhaps us Brits take for granted sometimes, but it does so much good.  And it does it for everybody, without discrimination.

The money I raise from this run will go directly to Kings, so I beg, plead, implore you, if you can, please please please donate to this very worthy cause.  For the time being, I will not be pestering people for money, I will simply leave the link here:

https://www.justgiving.com/Mike-Parks1

I will leave the pestering/harassment until nearer the time.

Thanks very much for reading!