Ginger Inspiration ...

After ambling along slowly by myself for the last few month's cursing my inability to progress from the run / walk method I had been following, a surprise text led me to dive back into the world of non solo running. For someone who had spent the first few months of their rediscovery of running hiding in the moon light this was a big step!

The surprise message came on a Monday morning when I was idly planning out my weeks running diary. "Fancy a run tonight, got an easy six miler mapped out?" Yes I did but was I ready, would I survive, could I get round without embarrassing myself? Two weeks before I had barely managed to complete my first 6 mile workout in over ten years, and here I was agreeing to hit the road with a crazy ginger man who loves to run daily marathons across the Sahara desert! Was I mad? Was I dreaming? What was I thinking?

The next few hours I was a in a daze! I told the wife we wouldn't be dining out tonight, I was off out with marathon mike, or Ginna as he's been more commonly known to me since he first had a hair cut like Anne Robinson. What was her response you might ask? "Oh right, are you going to come back in one piece?" That was a question I didn't know the answer to!

About ten past seven I started getting ready / nervous, (delete which ever you feel is most appropriate) before pacing the kitchen floor as if awaiting the cockerel to signal my dawn execution.

Before my insides could twist and turn themselves anymore, the door bell rang, the moment had arrived, would this be the first major step on my way to marathon greatness, or a nasty blow to my already damaged self esteem!

"So what sort of level are you at?", "Well I'm still doing a bit of run walking," i reluctantly admitted to Ginna, like a small child who'd told one of the older boys he was really good in goal, before being beaten repeatedly from every angle.

"Ok, will see how we get on." Was the ever greatly encouraging response. Then we were off, and it happened. I had a moment of realisation, an uplifting sense of well being, which wrapped it self around me and guided me upon high. I was running! Not run / walking, RUNNING! And I was running well. Everything just clicked. Here we were chatting away, my mind not wandering, over analysing, as it usually would, and I felt good.

55 minutes and 6 and half miles later I felt even better. I'd had my moment of enlightenment, Like Jules in Pulp Fiction, I'd seen what I had to do, and now I was determined to do it. (I could and would run, I would not walk the earth like Cain in Kung Fu! before any of you Tarantino fans get excited!)

So Marathon Mike, the Ginger Prince, Ginna or as others have described him, "You know mike the one with the beard who runs marathons in the desert!" Here's to you for setting me on the way, providing me with the necessary guidance to ease off and set a reasonable pace, but most of all to enjoy it!

Hopefully our monday nights will provide the backbone for my progress towards our nation's capital!