Click here for what I laughingly call my "racing" career
!
2000
I ran London OK
in 4:14.10, somewhat hampered by a cold and many Lemsips : I finally
break 4 hours in the Stratford Marathon, a creditable 3:57.18 only
two weeks after London. a second trip up to Scotland sees me return
with a Glasgow Marathon finisher's medal in 3:45.23, and, the week
after little Tom is born I plod round Wolverhampton in
3:53.36.
2001
London finally
got round to rejecting me this year, so I ran the Bungay Black Dog
Marathon instead - a late injury slowed me to 4:14.43. I also plodded
round the Wolverhampton Marathon in 4:23.25 but missed the rest of
the year's racing through injury.
2002
I managed
my way round London in 4:16.27, followed by an OK Wolverhampton in
3:59.12. The high point of the year was finally doing the Athens
Marathon, the original Olympic course which is the reason why we do
them, in 4:19.56. Who would have thought that out of me and Paula
Radcliffe, only one of us would ever enter the Parathanaikos
Stadium... :)
2003
A lean year for
me - lots of injuries meant I only managed to attend Stratford,
scraping round in 4:59.09. Never mind, there's always next
year...
2004
...or maybe
not. Injuries still prevailed and the only race I finished was
London, running sponsored for Macmillan in 4:46.14.
2005
Hurray ! Fit
again. Now all I have to do is get faster. This year I managed London
in 4:37.52 - got in by the beaqueathed fee ballot ! - an OK
Wolverhampton in 4:18.34, and an enjoyable trip to Cardiff to do
4:02.20.
2006
So far, the plans
include Dumfries in March, Paris (who knows) and London in April,
Stratford in May, Dartmoor in June and Wolverhampton in September.
Might try for Leicester in October, or even do Cardiff again.
Maybe I’ll see you at some
of those starting lines, then. The picture of me on the home page,
finishing Nottingham in 1987 in 3:11.53, is as photogenic as I get
and the hat, lucky Elvis Costello badge and t-shirt are always the
same !
