Portsmouth Coastal 2015

This was my defining moment. A few weeks before, I had signed up with Gaz and Mike to do the Marathon des Sables, a 160 mile multi-stage race over the Sahara Desert - roughly 6 marathons in 7 days. But today saw me at the start of just one marathon. In 2015 I was on a run streak - not a huge one, but I was running at least 1 mile a day. To be fair, I was running about 30 km a week, and building up quite well. Durning the build-up to this, I went to Las Vegas for my sister's wedding. I even kept up my running while in Sin City, even managing to run the day after the stag party.

I had the mental resolve to get me round a marathon, even walking. After just signing up for MDS I knew I would have to be strong and dig deep.  The first half of the marathon down to the turnaround point went well. I was surprised to see Gaz coming the other way so late. I was feeling good. I went though the turnaround point and started back up to the billy line.

I'm not sure what happened, but the wheels fell off. They fell off big. I talked myself out of finishing. I rationalised that this wasn't my A-race. As I wrestled with my demons, someone I now know to be Paul Pickford pointed out that the finish line was straight on as I was wavering. I was at the 16 mile point and I walked into a petrol station and called my wife to come and get me. 

By the time I had been collected we went to the finish and I saw Gaz. He commented he thought I was looking strong when he saw me. 

After just committing to spending a small fortune on MDS, for Christmas my wife, Sam, arranged for me to see a dietician. This is where things changed for me - my life took a different direction. There are things to learn from failure. Sure, I had struggled before, but that's part of my drive; the drive to push myself farther and harder. This was new territory for me and was not something I liked or wanted to continue. I know I will probably DNF again on something, but I made the pledge that it wouldn't be due to being unfit. I was at a new low.