This is my "Running" home page. Here you will find loads of information about my running, and links to navigate to previous years race reports by using the buttons on the left.
		To view my PB's
		2011 RACE REPORTS
		Click this button to go to the latest race report

2011
	Every Saturday 9am Coventry Park Run @ The War Memorial Park View my results HERE

2012
Saturday 22nd April	Virgin London Marathon

Race for the finish line  - Coventry Half Marathon 2010

Coventry Half Marathon 1st July 1984 Technical Running Gear ? (Vest from C&A)  NO ! State of the art Gel running shoes ? NO ! Lucozade Isotonic sports drink ? NO ! Carbo loading enegy gels ? NO ! ChampionChip timimg ? NO ! They didn't exist in 1984, but they do now  PRICELESS !!!

Anyone who runs 5 or 6 times a week and runs marathons would not describe themselves as either. 

Running 26.2 miles is not fun. You have to be dedicated. I find both terms derisory, and am sure many other runners would 

agree with me.

 

I began running in 1981 (I think !) and have successfully completed six London Marathons, one New York, One Rotterdam, 

One Amsterdam, One Boston and one Berlin. My personal ambition is to compete in all 5 World Marathon Majors, which only leaves 

Chicago for me to do - hopefully do it in 2010 ?

 

My London times were:

 

1988 - 3 hours 47 minutes and 50seconds

 

1993 - 3 hours 45 minutes and 21 seconds

 

2002 - Finishing in a PB of 3 hours 28 minutes and 27 seconds, beating the target I had set myself for doing a sub 3:30 marathon.

2004 -The training for the 2004 marathon went really well. For the first time in my twenty something years of running I took 
part in a measured and organised ten mile and twenty mile race. Yes, I had done those distances many many times in training but 
never in a race situation.

The ten miler was the Sneyd Striders Christmas pudding run, where I had targeted a 75 minute finish, and did an actual 
of 70 mins 45 seconds.

The twenty was a killer. I had heard many horror stories about the Ashby 20 but what the hell, I was going to do it anyway !.
The conditions were awful. If the undulating course wasn't enough of a challenge then the rain, hail, wind and low temperatures 
certainly made it one. For this one I had set my target at 2 hours 35mins, and posted an actual of 2 hours 29 mins and 6 seconds.

The rest of the training was made up of the usual runs during the week and long runs on a Sunday morning. My measurement 
of the route for our longest Sunday run is legendary at the club. I had measured it at 19.5 miles which everybody was happy with. 
When we finished running it, we couldn't understand why it took 2 hours 20 minutes to run 18 miles, but to run the newly measured
19.5 miles took an extra 30 minutes. Re measurement of the course revealed it was actually 21.5 miles and not 19.5........ oops !!!

Anyway the 2004 marathon bid failed, when I had to return from London the night before the marathon as my Dad was seriously ill. 
My number and chip were returned in exchange for a guaranteed place in the 25th anniversary 2005 London Marathon.

Most of my London runs and the first Coventry Half  have raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. In 1983 I was the 2nd highest fund raiser in the UK running London raising £1,100 In 2002 I raised £1,050 My target for 2003 was to raise over £1,000. The boys of "The Woodlands School" Coventry donated £500 raised from a non uniform day and Data World 2000, Coventry donated a further £250. Peugeot, friends, family and colleagues came up with another £1165 giving a  total sum raised of £1,915 easily smashing my target of £1,000. Despite having to withdraw at the eleventh hour in 2004, I ran the Stratford  Half the following week. My sponsors for London agreed to stand by their pledges, and I raised a total of £620.  Since I started running I estimate that I have raised in excess of £ 8,500 for the charity.

This page was last updated 5th December 2010 © A S Mackness 2010