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Anybody think I'm being over ambitious?
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Knowing this forum I would doubt anyone would wish George ill - I know that since I've been coming here all I have received is support. Reading through the thread again I suppose some of the responses were a bit harsh, but there again, the danger is that if you were to pussyfoot around he might badly injure himself. As a chunky monkey (who is losing steaadily) I know how desperate I am to lose the weight and I can only imagine what it must be like to be George, but I have also learned that I needed to mix my desperate desire with realistic expectations of my body. Not an easy task, but a necessary one.
I do hope George stays on the thread though, his story, if he sticks with running, could be truly inspirational for all us chunky monkeys.
D
The thing is with forums, people tend to ask for advice, but alot of the time, don't like what they hear, or what they hear they don't want to hear.
I don't think any of the responses were harsh at all, TBH, I wish more people had been harsh with me when I was morbidly obese, maybe it wouldn't have taken me so long to get my arse in gear.
There is a LOT of good advice in this thread, from people who've been there and done it, and (to me) it was clear that George, while taking the advice onboard, was going to do his own thing anyway, which is his perogative.
I personally find the term "chunky monkey" condisending, but its a public forum, and you can say what you like
I agree with the last two or three posts.
People will ask for advice and only expect what they would term 'encouragement' ie runners telling them they should run and run and be really ambitious.
The trouble is that, on the whole, runners tend to be very honest about the hard work involved and understand the ever present risks of trying to rush the training process.
But by being honest and actively discouraging people from doing too much there have been some extreme reactions on this forum, often interpreting the helpful advice as 'bullying' and accusing the posters of being 'running snobs'.
'Being cruel to be kind' springs to mind as I would far rather George ended up with hurt feelings and feeling somewhat deflated rather than getting soft soaped and ending up with some nasty lower leg injuries.
Nobody has said that he shouldnt aim to run a marathon - just that he should take it step by step and not expect too much too soon. All good advice as far as I can see. I do suspect, however, like others that George has already decided what he is going to do and will probably be looking elsewhere to find people who will tell him what he wants to hear.
On the subject of "chunky monkeys" I am very careful not to label other people overweight, chunky, large or fat. For me, those labels are arbitrary and extremely personal. However, I do use the term for myself, because it not only reflects my current size, but psychologically how I see myself. If other readers find the term offensive, or condescending I wholeheartedly apologise, but I would emphasise it is more a comment about myself and NOT about my opinion of another individual.
As someone who has worked in the "advice sector" most of my adult life I have always been puzzled by those people who ask for advice and then don't like what they hear. It always strikes me in these instances that they were not seeking advice in the first place, but reassurance that their chosen path is the right one. Now I would be the last to accuse George of such an approach, until I hear differently directly from him. It may be that he has heard the feedback and in a very natural and human way, smarted at the news and withdrawn to reflect on what he has been told. I hope this is the case -it would be a tragedy to see such good advice going to waste.
D
Like I said, its your personally choice, its not wholey offensive, but I just don't like "labels".
As for the whole advice thing, I think it boils down to why the advice is asked for in the first place, now I am not saying this was the case for George, not for one minute, but sometimes people will ask for advice with the hope of a bit of ego stroking, I know, I have done it myself.
Forums are generally, wholey impersonal, its very hard to gauge tone and hidden meaning, something thats easy(er) to do in real life, down to body language, tone of voice and hidden signals, and as such, its easy to misjudge something if you take it the wrong way.
I have decided to apply for a golden bond place with the intention of completing the marathon whatever way possible. I was very close to not going for it. I appreciate all the advice and will be on here regularly to keep people updated of my progress.
Officially no longer morbidly obese according to my BMI! 83lbs in 11 weeks!
Well done George, keep it going.
You're getting lots of support and advice, Nam in particular seems to be very supportive so listen to her and/or people you respect advice from.
Good luck and keep us all up to date with your news.
George, best of luck mate. Really I mean it. You haven't run a single solitary mile yet but are convinced that you can do it, which I think is admirable if not seriously flawed, but I suspect that no matter what was said you were already going to take onboard only what you wanted to read; everyone has said don't go for a marathon but go for a realistic goal instead.
Have to read any of the articles I linked to in the other thread?
I will add this George. You have not got the faintest idea what kind of effort, pain and dedication that this is going to take and I feel for you already. This is going to hurt!
George,
There will be GB places being offered around by some charity or other almost up to the last minute, so why not leave that for a while and wait to see how you get on targetting, say a 10K in January first?
My concern would be that you go down the GB route, get a pile of sponsors lined up and then feel that you have to go ahead even if you're way off being in fit shape to do a marathon.
A marathon is not part of a weight loss programme - it is a hard physical sporting endeavour...and very damaging to an under prepared body!
George your weight loss is unbelieveable and well done on your achievement but I feel I have to echo many of the posts and plead you to think again about the Marathon in April. It sounds ages away I know but as you have said you are still losing weight and the diet you are following may be giving great quick results but it is not sustainable for marathon training and your health in general.
Why not consider a half marathon and a marathon later next year, I feel that you are likely to be injuried or severely fatigued if you continue with your current plans.
I'm all for supporting my fellow runners but also take heed of good advice from the experienced people around, yes have ambitions and goals but not at the expense of your health.
Well you're one step ahead of most people, I'll give you that!
I cant imagine many VLMers have a 'fundraising team'.
If you can give me an idea of what I should be going for the next couple of weeks I'd appreciate it. And just for the record I will be taking part in the marathon but I will be not be running the whole way!
I think George is ignoring everyone except for those who are directly supporting the idea Eva.
George, realistically you should be upping your mileage every ten days adding one extra mile each time because you have a hek of a lot of catching up to do. Don't whatever you do though, tell people that you don't intend to try to run all of it!
Again though I must ask, you said this:
"Park I have already applied to a 10k on 20th december! And yeah ur right that's y I'm planning to wait till the new year to fundraise but it depends on my fundraising team whether they think it's feasible."
What is it that your fundraising 'team' may or may not think is feasible? Your entering the marathon?
Have you read the links that I posted on the other thread you started?
I hate to be blunt (okay I dont really
) but why do it then?
What are you really trying to achieve?
If you want to cover 26 miles on your feet, go for a walk - you dont need a running race to go for a walk (and, yes, I know you're planning on running some of it but thats not the point).
This ridiculous notion that 'getting around' a marathon is somehow heroic has gone too far.
Train properly to run a 10K, then take a breather and train properly to run a half, then take a breather and train properly to run a 20 mile race...then eventually when your body is strong enough train to run a marathon.
In each build up you need to be planning a minimum of 6-10 races at various distances to 'toughen' the body up.
If that all sounds like too much hard work then distance running is not for you....and a marathon certainly isnt.
Forget the quick fix mentality which sees piles of nutters 'doing London' each year never to be seen again because of the agony they have endured - look after your body and stay fit and healthy for many years to come!
There is a good book by John BIngham (otherwise known as the penguin) and Jenny Hadfield called 'Marathon running for mortals: a mortals guide to the joy of running or walking a half marathon or marathon'.
Lengthy title !
I would highly recommend you get a hold of a copy of this and start treating it like your bible. Not only is it well written and fun to read - it has achievable schedules to help train you up to walk or run/walk a distance race - and John and Jenny are incredible motivating individuals. I really enjoyed this book when I first started.
Actually I have just found it on my bookshelf - you can have my copy if you like. Email me from the site and i will pop it in the post on monday.
This ridiculous notion that 'getting around' a marathon is somehow heroic has gone too far.
Forget the quick fix mentality which sees piles of nutters 'doing London' each year never to be seen again because of the agony they have endured
I am so with you on that one.
I have entered the ballot for VLM2010, and to be honest, if I was told today that I was in, I'd panic a bit.
In your mind, distance is easy, if you run 1 mile, and think, hmmm, a marathon is only 26 of those miles, that wouldn't be too hard, its NOTHING like that at all, a half marathon is "only" two 10k races, but the distance in a single hit is a lot more than the sum of 2 x 10k's, believe me.
I feel that you aren't giving the distance the respect that you need to give it, you are being a bit flippant about it, you are new to running, you are obese, and you are planning on entering a marathon about 8 months.
Do you get what I am driving at George?.
Nice to hear, GymAddict .... but I have taken some abuse on other threads for making such utterances in the past.
But when they insist on giving extra brownie points for 'never done a marathon before' applicants what can we expect!!
I've got to admit though they've got the 'machine' primed to perfection.
1. Hype up 35,000 newbies - make it sound fun and easy.
2. Give all the places to charities at £400 a pop.
3. Throw said 35,000 newbies to the charities and let them do their worst.
4. Watch 35,000 suffer the agonies of running (well, a bit of it anyway
) and get completely discouraged from distance running.
5. Watch 35,000 people conveniently forget the suffering as they tell anyone who will listen what a wonderful time they had 'doing London' before quietly hoping that nobody asks about doing another one.
Repeat steps 1 -5 every 12 months......
i dont understand this 'respecting the distance' stuff, or why it matters if someone runs one marathon, takes ages and then never does another. i dont know why anyone would care!
is it a sensible plan? no
will you in all probability end up injured and/or ill and not make it to the start line? yes
is there a possibility that you will make it round very slowly and painfully? yes, a slim one
Danowat I understand what you are saying.
Any maybe I rushed into joining this forum too quickly when I am planning to run AND walk the 26 miles. Everyone is saying that its not an achievement but I think if I do it then it is! And then when 2011 comes around its something I can strive to beat.
I understand what everyone on here is saying but I am being honest and saying that I want to do it!
Everyone is saying that I should leave it a while longer, well then can 2010 marathon not be seen as preparation for 2011 when I WILL be running the entire way? Everyone needs to chill out. Every post on here has said the same thing over and over again and some posts are even suggesting that I'm basically an idiot which I think is unfair.
The diet I am doing will not affect the preliminary stages of my training, and like I said a couple posts ago its a challenge that would need to be reviewed every couple of weeks.
Also if I dont get a Gold Bond place then you can all be happy that I will not be able to do it. Lol
I shouldnt be surprised by the response I am getting on here as I have come to a forum that is full of "runners" and I am not one yet. Also I think everyone on here is underestimating my fitness a tad but thats easy for me to say.
And on another point I know that I may have come across as being very stubborn but thats my character. I would think that after a couple weeks people will not be trying to put me down still but, because I have made my decision, offer me advice about how I CAN achieve this. If you think its impossible then thats fine everyone is entitled to their opinion, just think about what effect someone telling you cannot do something would have on your training...
don't take it personally George!
i did a race in the spring that is considered fairly hard. there was a very big guy who also turned up to do the race. he was probably around 20 stone. he had a go, but ultimately failed to finish. i felt that many of the other competitors were willing him to fail because they felt that someone who looked so unfit completing the challenge that they considered very hard, in some way diminished their own efforts. and you are probably on the receiving end of that here to a certain extent.
my head > brick wall, I can't keep saying the same things over, and over, its pointless, you've made up your mind, I just hope that you don't end up, at best injured and pissed off.
To para-phrase dragons den, "and on the note, I am out"
Of course it does!
The whole entry process is biased towards the inexperienced who are more likely to be willing to raise large amounts of money for charity in a way that regular runners simply cant do on a repeated basis.
So, instead of encouraging people to take 2-3 years to progressively train the body to be able to withstand the rigours of marathon running they are encouraged to jump straight in, feet first, into a 'Get You Round A Marathon In 3 Easy Steps' type training plan.
There are plenty of people lining up at London who have done maybe 1-2 races previously in total (I dare say for some it is even their first ever race!). It is clearly asking for trouble putting so much strain on an underprepared musulo-skeletal system. The resulting discomfort and pain endured as a result of the under preparation is far more likely to discourage people from distance running than encourage them.
Now, if applicants had to prove a history of having completed say at least 6 x 10Ks and 3 x Half Marathons over the previous 24 months before being accepted then there would be a lot less pain and discomfort, and therefore discouragement , as a result.
But that wouldnt work as well for the charities which, of course, is what its all about............sod the running!