Off for a run: Although the title of this post is going for a run, in truth its not me that will be going for a run, it’s my younger brother Paul. In fact it’s really a bit more than a run, because he’s doing his second Ultra Marathon in May. This one is called the L2M Double and for those of you who may not know what an ultra marathon is, then quite simply it’s the small matter of running a 100 miles.
Bonkers? Now some people might think that the desire to run a 100 miles falls somewhere between a noble thing to do or stark raving bonkers, for me it’s towards the bonkers state of affairs. He’s been running for a while now and started in earnest when he decided to set himself a personal challenge that he called 500km for 50 years – which translated to him running 14 races totaling 500km between his 49th and 50th birthday (last year) and which he did with some aplomb. Oddly enough he isn’t actually satisfied with that and now hopes to join the ‘100 Club’ by the time he reaches his 60th birthday!
To be fair they were not any old runs that he did to complete his 500km for 50 challenge . It wasn’t really a case of a quick jog around the park or a bit of a sprint up the stairs, no, no no – completing his 500km for 50 has included: six official road marathons; two official trail marathons and one official Ultra marathon – he’s also knocked in a few ‘training runs’ by running from Stoke to Stockport, Liverpool to Stockport and Sheffield to Stockport. Somewhere in between all that he has done about a dozen official half marathons plus more training runs and unofficial half marathons than you can shake a stick at – in fact in 2016 he did 241 runs and covered almost 1,500 miles (2,375km).
His 2016 efforts were a step up on his 2015 running year – which I have decided to describe as a slackers year as he only managed to do two marathons outside of the UK (Pisa and Dublin).
After breakfast Now if that lot wasn’t barking enough, and surely it is, his antics in early December (2016) raised the bar.
Most people have a routine before they go to work, for some it might involve walking the dog, for others it might be taking the children to school after breakfast or what ever it is that ‘normal’ people do to start the day. Bizarrely Paul decided that he would start the 9th December by running to the office … but sort of a slightly longer way than normal, in fact long enough to make it a marathon! He also decided it would be a good idea to raise some money for the local radio station’s (Key 103) Christmas Cash for Kids Appeal and he managed to raise over £800 whilst most ‘normal’ people were still having their morning toast.
The run that Paul is doing takes place on 27th/28th May, starts in Liverpool, has Manchester as the mid way point and then ends back in Liverpool, which is why the run is called the L2M Double.
Not being quite satisfied with preparing for his second ultra’ he also has a track marathon lined up for later this month – this means running round a 400 metre track a mere 105 times.
I’m sure when Paul does his Ultra in May that he will complete it within the allocated time. In fact I now have a vested interest and responsibility in making sure he does complete it as he has conned, mugged, convinced, invited, bribed me to ‘crew’ for him in May.
I thought that between now and the back end of May I would write a few Blog posts to update on Paul’s progress towards his May run and I’ll write again next week and say a few words about how I ended up agreeing to give up a weekend of my life to help him complete his next running mission.
I’m sure Paul will be planning to raise money for charity and I’ll update on that as soon as I know more.
I’ll be providing updates on Paul’s progress between now and the end of May. if you want to know how its going and keep up to date with how he is doing you can do so by entering your email address in the box on the top right hand side, and you will automatically receive updates, as soon as they are posted.
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