TO THE KENYAN HILLS

Since the Amsterdam half marathon my training has been going very well except for a few interruptions due to illness. The trip to Lanzarote was a fantastic experience but by the end of 3 really hard weeks training I was pretty exhausted and ready for a rest. On my return a huge number of editing jobs had built up that had to be done before Christmas and consequently I have not been able to update the website as frequently as I would like and for this I apologise.

On the 3rd of January to the 27th I am off to Kenya to train but more importantly document/attempt to explain why contrary to the decline of top end marathon running in Britain there has been a huge increase in the numbers of world class marathon runners in Kenya. In 2006 over 500 Kenyan runners ran under 2:20 compare this to the 5 runners in the UK this year and you can understand why the Kenyan athletes are so dominant on the international stage.

Another interesting fact that was bought to my attention was that Britain’s top Marathon runner Jon Brown has decided to swap countries to Canada after having his lottery funding terminated. Britain’s second best runner Tomas Abuy who ran a fantastic time for the Dublin Marathon of 2:10 has been told that his time will not count for the qualifying for the Beijing Olympics because he did not tell anyone that he was going for it. This leaves Dan Robinson the only British runner to have qualified having run under 2:15 in the London Marathon 2007. The good news is that this leaves the door open to another 10 or so runners who will be hungry for a place, thus hopefully having the desired effect of improved times this April.

As far as my own training, I am ticking away still but realise that getting much faster than 2:30 for London is just not going to happen, no matter how positive my attitude is. I am really enjoying the training again, running better than ever and looking forward to the half marathon on the 10th of February which I think will be my only 100% race in the build up to the Marathon.

While I am away in Kenya internet access will be limited so I might not be able to get back to everyone who writes to me but I will defiantly write on my return. For all those that are in touch with messages of support, questions about the documentary and training advice thank you very much for taking the time to write. If anyone else has any questions please feel free to get in touch.
When I do get the chance to use the internet I will write on this blog about the trip and how the training and documentary are going.

Have a very Happy Christmas and New Year and a very prosperous 2008!