Christopher Hamilton

Never one to shy away from setting myself ridiculously difficult challenges, my foray back into running and getting healthy has been dominated by the distance challenge I set myself, and which Lance agreed to do with me. I could easily have set something easily reachable to boost my confidence and keep me running, but that wouldn’t have the same “Prove To Everyone I Can Do It” factor. When I mentioned it to a few friends, they said I was crazy. I would never manage to do the distance I was talking about, and then pretty much dismissed what I told them my plan for next year was. It was a response I expected, and one that I’m very happy to have received.

That may sound a little strange, but there was a part of my brain that screamed “Fuck You” when I got that response. It adds an extra dynamic to the pursuit of my goals because no-one believes I’ll manage it, and that pushes me harder than the thought of just doing it for myself ever would. It’s the same drive that made me go scuba diving even though I can’t really swim. It’s the same drive that made me go sky diving when heights make me feel sick. It’s the same drive that’s going to make me run the length of the UK in 2008. That’s 874 Miles.

Looking at the distance I’ve run so far, it looks as though I’m going to struggle to reach that target. It works out at about 73 miles per month, which I’ll be lucky to reach this month. That doesn’t bother me though. As the year progresses my runs will get longer, and the monthly mileage will get higher. At the moment my average run is about 3 Miles and that’s the level I’m going to stick at for a while. I don’t plan to rush this journey.

My distance challenge is also the means to another end for me. It’s not only something I have to prove I can do, it doubles as a solid training foundation for what I have planned for next year. My goal for next year is to complete the New York Marathon, assuming I can actually get a spot. It’s something that’s going to be exceptionally difficult, but it’s a challenge I’m excited about. I could have tried to get into shape in time to do it this year, but I knew that wasn’t a viable option. To go from pretty unfit to running a marathon in 11 months would have been possible, but really hard. This way I can build my fitness levels up to a point where I would be confident that I could complete the marathon.

This year, as well as the basic road running, I’m going to look into doing a few runs for charity. The Great Edinburgh Run is in May, which I plan on making my first official run this year. If I can get healthy, and raise some money for charity at the same time, then happy days.

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