Here is a question I have pondered over for hours. I am thinking about proper endurance sport here like really big challenges. You know marathon and up.
I have done a whole load of such events. London to Brighton race walk. 3 London Marathons, 2 New York Marathons, The Marathon du Mont Blanc, and a whole host of long distance cross country races. The Grizzly 5 times to name but one famous event. I have completed a huge number of long distance cycling events including the Milan St Remo Classic, all 190 miles of it and a mountain stage of the Tour De France. I have done a number of, long distance swims and of course there is the small matter of around a dozen Ironman 70.3s and 4 full Ironman races. I have of course completed thousands of miles in training for these events and a colossal amount of time too. But why?
As a younger man I was a good athlete. At primary school I received an English Schoolboys proficiency certificate one of only two in the area.I was my school cross country champion and Captain of Athletics. I won several events at the town sports but never really excelled. I was a good if not very good Rugby Player and I did play for the Harlequins first team on a few occasions. I took up cricket late but I was OK at that too representing Hertfordshire and Devon in the over 50s county competition. (not sure if that is good or not). However despite being almost hopeless at long distance events competitively somehow I was drawn towards them.
Picture if you will a group of 30 somethings pounding the Hertfordshire lanes training for a visit to New York to take part in the marathon race. All slightly overweight all gasping along at around 8 minute miles all feeling distinctly queasy about the task ahead. Picture an older man in a wetsuit slipping into the icy waters of Sidmouth day for yet another training swim. Cold, no visability and to be honest not a good swimmer. There he is stop watch ready to go, another 90 minutes of hell.
Picture the state of the art bike with carbon wheels and carbon everything costing the price of a small car yet on the bike a portly figure straining every sinew to get up a hill.
What I can honestly tell you is having a target to aim for in life is good. If only because when you wake in the night you have something to think about rather than ponder the universe. I can tell you that buying kit is good too. The more the merrier and if you can ‘out tech’ your mates you win a mysterious game. I suppose that training for a long distance event provides some discipline in life too. I must get my run in or I must do a long bike at the weekend.
Doing long distance events can be useful if you want to support a charity. If you ask someone for £50 for running along the promenade say you will be told to get real. But offer to run 26 miles up a mountain and rather than people telling you the truth and asserting your madness they will instead support you, often in a big way. I have personally raised a lot of money for charities and whilst I think this is good in the round it is honestly not the reason I have done so many daft things.
In the end I need to tell the ruth and it is this. I can honestly say I have never decided to do something really testing whilst sober. Early in my life one of my ‘advisors’ told me if you say you are going to do something in life you MUST carry it though. “Say is do” is one of my personal rules.
So the truth is somewhere in a bar or maybe on a plane my mind, contorted by the demon drink has come up with an idea. Running a marathon cruising at 35,000 feet with three glasses of Chardonnay on board seems like a really good idea! As I tend to drink with friends or family the ‘say is do’ phrase can be used to coerce others into taking part in events that most would consider way outside their comfort zones. Most of the marathons I did were in the company of people I ‘persuaded’ in a bar or similar and most had but one go at it. Almost alarmingly I persuaded a large number of people to take part in Ironman races for Gods sake. However that persuasion normally took place at a club barbecue or maybe the Christmas Party. ‘Dennis” someone would say ‘I am going to do an Ironman next year’ the Christmas party had many such utterances. ‘I will hold you to that’ said I, and I did.
The other thing I need to confess is this. If you are training for an Ironman race say you will probably need to do around 12 to 20 hours a week of exercise just to mentally prepare for the event. That is a lot but there is one advantage. You can eat and let’s be honest drink as much as you like and still remain relatively well honed. So the truth is out. I love beer. I always have. My best man Keith Bellingham asserted the world was a far far better place if two pints of best bitter were swimming around the system and he was right. I am probably the only person I know that thought it normal to have a ‘few’ before a race of any sort including Ironman races-to calm me down you understand.
So confession in full I entered the races because I had been on the sauce and all the training and preparation allowed me to keep my levels. Thing is my best mate is the same but apart from him I know of no-one else who admits to the same. Should I worry?
Tales of a Life Well Lived 