15 Miles In!

Come Sunday November 5th, when I say I am 15 miles in, it will mean that I am just about to go over the Queensboro bridge and into Manhattan. I’ve read many people say that it is one of their favourite parts of the marathon, because of the noise after you exit the bridge. It will also be the longest I will have ran in a race, as I am going to forego the NYRR marathon tune-up due to it being far longer than my training has me running that day. However, right now, it means that in my marathon training I have completed the first 15 miles. My training officially started on Tuesday, as I spent part of July 4th in the gym running for three miles. Of course, as a Brit I can’t really celebrate that day can I?

Otherwise, since my last post I have run another race. On Sunday June 25th, I ran in the Achilles hope and possibility 4 mile race. For those that don’t know about Achilles International, they are a group that arranges for volunteers to help disabled runners run races. Life can be tough for those that are disabled, and for an organisation to help disabled people exercise by running races they wouldn’t otherwise be able to take part in, well they have my respect. It is likely to be a race I’ll continue to do in future, as all money New York Road Runners make goes to them. The one issue I have about the race, you could call it my Achilles heel (pun intended); the heat. As someone who thinks anything about 65 degrees Fahrenheit is too hot, it was way too hot for me. Strangely, my per mile time was actually slower than the half marathon I had just ran. The race goes through Central Park, and after about 1/2 a mile it was all out in the open. It wasn’t until the final mile that any breeze hit, and even although that was a head-wind the cooling factor of the wind helped me run over two minutes quicker than any other mile. Thank god the marathon is in November, maybe the weather will co-operate with us Scottish folk.

In the last few posts, I’ve “ignored” going into the 3rd of the charities that my running the marathon will support. The 3rd charity I will be running for is, as many will be doing, a cancer related charity. In my past working life, I was a Scientist working in the Cancer field until what I would call an unlucky/lucky problem meant the lab I worked in had to close, and I ended up transferring my Scientific ability to the Science of smell. One thing I always internally laughed at was when I was asked when I am going to cure cancer. The sad truth is that cancer isn’t just one disease. You have loads of different types of cancer, and even the same type will be different. That’s one of the reasons cancer problem is so difficult to solve. However, the charity that I’ll be running for is going to be a pancreatic cancer charity. In the past few years, I’ve had a family member who died of the disease, as well as seen a friend lose his wife to it. As soon as you hear someone has pancreatic cancer, you immediately think the worst. It doesn’t matter how brave a patient is, or how much they have to live for, the fact that symptoms aren’t known for a long time mean that it is rarely good news you receive. The first step at fighting pancreatic cancer is going to be finding a way to detect the disease before it’s too late. That’s where at least 25% of the money I raise will be going.

The next time I post, I’ll tell you about the 4th cause I’ll tire myself out for; to go along with pancreatic cancer, alzheimers and autism research. Until then, the miles will keep getting racked up, and I’ll keep on running.