Hello all, so here it is, I'm on Steemit. Why am I here? Why are you here? Well I look forward to finding out... Enough fluff, lets get down to business!
A couple of years of ago, at the time of Christmas 2013 not long after running away from boarding school (literally one of the best decision I have ever made, EVER) following my naive hopes and dreams of becoming a Royal Marines Commando going up in smoke in front of me my eyes. My dear older sister gave me a book by Dean Karnazes called 'Ultra Marathon Man'. An auto biography of a man who set the world record for the longest uninterrupted run (no rest, no sleep) of 500km or around 310 miles. To me at the time me being 16 years old and doing a little bit of running here and there, reading it absolutely blew my mind.
Before the age of 14 I was a FAT little kid, fat with long hair. During the regional cross country qualifiers when I was about 13 I came dead last out of a few hundred other kids. Following this epic embarrassment and catastrophic failure, something clicked. Being the fat little kid who couldn't climb out the pool without using the ladder who would have to have his friends haul him out like a whale carcass just wasn't ok to me anymore. Soooo... I started RUNNIN', I could barely run between two lamp posts without getting out of breath, but I kept on truckin' with no notion of training structure, not a the foggiest clue about nutrition or ANYTHINGGGG like that. But I kept on running.
Fast forward a year or so, fate inserts plot twist I discovers the illusive creates that we call women and the associated agonising pain of heartbreak that comes with them. This new found pain was put to the best use. I channeled it into running, and duh, ran MORE. Some mornings I'd get up early before school and run, made me less of a grumpy teen during the day, starting the day with big fuck yes dopamine hit.
Fast forward some more in the interest of LENGTH, I run my first marathon completely unsupported solo at aged 16.
Thats me aged 16, ready to go fuck shit up solo on the local trail for my first 26.2 mile adventure, clocking in 5 hours and 40 minutes of running.
So after all that epic cold wet who-ha of running a marathon on a COLD December morning, I wanted to crank it up to beyond a marathon. SOOO the following year in the summer of 2015 I ran the Pathfinder Ultra Marathon. A 46 mile or 75km trail circuit around the former RAF pathfinder bases from world war 2. I walked this route the previous year, and similarly drew on some more classic heartbreak fuel as I kept reminding myself the girlfriend I had at the time and how she'd keep on saying "IF YOURE GETTING LITTLE NIGGLING PAINS FROM RUNNING NOW YOU'LLL nEVER RUN A MARATHON ROBINNNNN.." Oh how wrong she was... You may find the biggest haters are the ones closest to you, funny that.
Aged 17, second ultra Marathon, 20ish mile into the pathfinder Ultra Marathon, stuck with these two absolute legends until mile 30.
Not a lot happened after all that, all the fitness was subject to atrophy (GONE). And I didn't have any goal in my sights immediately after this. UNTIL (predictable right..?) I found CRAIGEEEE Alexander... a pro triathlete and SEVERAL times Ironman world champion. THisssss again, like Dean Karnazes, blew my mind. Whatever this madness was, I wanted to be a part of it immediately. For those of you who don't know an Ironman triathlon is made up of a 3.8km swim (2.4 miles), a 180km bike ride (112 miles), and a full Marathon 42km (26.2 miles) in that order ON THE SAME DAY WITH NO BREAK. Crazy right? So I hit the good old "FUCK IT" button signed up for a race and that was that. Ironman Wales 2016, best day of my life so far.
Had my times and name engraved on the back of my medal, PROOF.
ANYWAY! Today is the present day, and I'm still VERY hungry for more. I started a youtube channel to document my training leading up to IM Wales 2016, but figured it wouldn't hurt to blog this madness too plus other random bits and bobs... So hang about, more is coming!