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In my debut marathon in Edinburgh 53 weeks ago, I ran 3:00:40-narrowly failing to get under 3 hours due to missing 3 peak training weeks with a calf strain and going too fast at the start. I then entered the World Masters Marathon Championship in Bucharest in October, but tried to do too much too quickly after coming back from the Euros and developed an achilles tendinopathy which I just couldn’t shake off so I had to pull out.

After a lengthy period of not running, I began to run again in late October, building my fitness very gradually. I’d been thinking of entering another marathon this Spring, but dragged my feet over looking into the possibilities and was actually marathon training before I managed to get a resale place for the Stockholm Marathon at the beginning of April, even though it had sold out at the end of February.

So I started training quite late for this, my second marathon. I’ve been doing plenty of other races including my first track races in 32 years in February when I ran 800m (2:23) and 1500m (4:49) in the British Masters Indoor Championships in London. I beat my one mile PB by 6 seconds (5:20) in the wind in Inverness. I lowered my 10k PB by 1-2 seconds to 36:19 in Glasgow in late April. My Half Marathon in Kent in March was over 4 minutes slower than last year (1:24:07), but my preparation wasn’t great. I ran 61:39 in my first 10 mile race, despite there being 120 metres of elevation, at Mallory Park motor racing circuit near Leicester on 3 May.

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I’ve got plenty of reasons to be confident to do better than I did at Edinburgh:

1. I’ve stayed injury free this time.

2. New Asics Metaspeed Edge carbon plate racing shoes.

3. I’ll hopefully get better sleep this time, as I only slept for 3-4 hours on each of the two nights before the Edinburgh Marathon.

4. I’ll hopefully pace myself much better this time around.

One small negative is I’m 1-2 kilos heavier than I was this time last year. I’ve had aches and pains in my left hip and left calf the last week or two, but hopefully neither will prove to be a problem.

I'm in starting group B, which is the fastest runners after the elite runners. The marathon starts at 12 noon CET

So I’m raising money for Headway Highland, the local group of the wonderful charity which has helped me so much with my recovery. I attended meet-ups with Headway Highland twice a week for almost two years and continue to attend occasionally.

Below is a copy and paste of my fundraising bio ahead of the Edinburgh Marathon last year, which details my recovery and fitness journey.

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On the 26th of February 2020, I was involved in a road traffic accident and I sustained a severe-moderate traumatic brain injury. I was sedated and intubated overnight. I spent 3 days in intensive care and a week in hospital in total. Apart from my head injury, I also had a soft tissue injury to my right shoulder, which took 3 months of daily physio exercises to heal.

The first lockdown started 3 weeks after I got out of hospital. I suppose that is where my fitness journey began. I was scared of aggravating my shoulder injury, so I purposefully didn't run or cycle until those 3 months were over. Being lockdown, I did lots of walking to get out of the house. At the end of the 3 months, I started running again and I did a lot more cycling for a while. I ran and cycled regularly for about 15 months before doing the first post-lockdown park run in August 2021. My time for my first 5k was 25:31.

After 17 months of sometimes doing the park run (by this time my best was 20:35), I joined Inverness Harriers in January 2023. In March 2023, I ran my first 10k in 40:46 and a week later I ran my first half marathon with a target of under 1:30:00. I ran 1:29:31. There and then I decided that I would run my first marathon and my target was under 3 hours.

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In February and March 2024, I set various PBs:

3k-(new era PB) of 10:09

5k-17:48

10k-36:21

Half Marathon-1:20:01, giving me a projected marathon time of either 02:46:50 or 02:50:02 depending on the formula used.

My marathon training was going exceptionally well, so well that I was over-doing things. I developed a calf strain which meant that I had to stop running for 3 peak training weeks (with the benefit of hindsight I was doing too many intense or condensed miles). I resumed running on 1 May and it took me another 9 days to get back on schedule, only to start tapering on 12 May. So the longest run I've done was 20 miles 7 weeks out when I'd intended to get up to 23 miles but for my injury. Coming back from injury, the compromise was managing to get back up to 16 miles before starting my taper.

I am running the Edinburgh Marathon on the 26th of May 2024, 4 years and 3 months after sustaining a life changing injury. It also takes place 6 months after my 46th birthday.

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Headway is a charity which have helped me enormously with my recovery from my head injury. As a mark of gratitude, I am running to raise funds for them. Incidentally, in 2021, I made a charity donation of £42.25. Do the math!...now what is it they say in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

(*)

The photo is from the Inverness Half Marathon in March. Not the bib number I wanted in a year when Scotland are playing in a major finals!

I gained entry to the 2024 Edinburgh Marathon in October last year. For various reasons, my fundraising is only starting now.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.