Thanks for visiting my thread for the Asics 26.2 competition, I’m still on a huge high following my shortlisting for the project!
I took up running one year ago after my wife attended a beginners running course and came home saying how friendly and great the club were, so the next week I went along to the Slinn Allstars in Swindon – big shout out to all the Allstars! – and she was right, they are a great bunch and extremely friendly! It’s a trait I’ve found in all runners actually, and I certainly wouldn’t have achieved the progress I have made without the support of the group.
Since joining the club they have encouraged my running to the point where I have now completed two half marathons (1.59 and 1.56…. getting gradually quicker!) and have really enjoyed both of them…even though it did chuck it down at the Swindon half in October! I have now set my sights on upping the distance to become a marathoner.
I entered the Asics 26.2 project after reading about it in Runners World magazine and, after some encouragement from my sister who ran the London Marathon in 2013, she’s passing the marathon baton on to me now she is Pregnant! I’ve also always had an ambition to do a marathon before I am 30 – it’s next September but don’t tell anyone! - and what better place than in Paris. The beautiful city also holds a special place in my heart as it’s where my wife Eve and I got engaged!
Bootcamp was a fantastic experience, the 5.30AM alarm not so much, but it was well worth it when I got there. I had a bit of time to spare so I started with a tour of the campus to visit my old university days, including a barrier that once hit me on the head when I wasn’t looking. Actually, maybe that explains a lot…
Then it was up to the café at the Munrow Sports Centre to meet my fellow boot campers. Everybody was very welcoming, approachable and we quickly started chatting about running. There was a real mix of experienced marathoners and first timers. Following a quick introduction by the organisers we headed to the comfort of the sprung floorin the gym for an excellent talk on injury management and prevention. It was then outside to complete a timed 5K run under the watchful gaze of Steve Smythe. After lunch we had a really informative chat with Mara Yamauchi, and the overriding thing I took from the session was to keep it simple and enjoy your running. Following an Asics gait analysis session we finished the day under the stadium lights with a pacing session lead by Sam Murphy.
It was a fantastic and very inspiring day made all the better by the rest of the sub 4.30 group. We all had a lot of laughs, picked up a lot of new information and supported each other on all the runs. Since bootcamp I have been putting into place some of the pacing, stretching (“activate the glutes!!!”) and nutrition tips into practice.
I’m so happy to have been shortlisted for the next stage, I really didn’t expect it. So, if you want to see a slightly below average height chap realise his marathon ambition then please vote #TeamReeve. And as you can probably tell by the #, I tweet more than your average garden sparrow, so also please give me a follow me at @davidreeve.
Thanks again and good luck with you running!
Comments
Vote for me here: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/target262/sub-430-finalists.aspx thanks!
si david you have finally found the forums.......
so what kind of poster will you be and what will you bring to the forums...
Hi Seren nos,
Sorry I havent found the forum's before - still relatively new to all this running stuff, despite reading Runners World for while I hadn't ventured onto here. Hope all you regulars play nice!
I plan to bring my training expereinces as I work towards my first Marathon, be that as part of this project or otherwise. I hope people will be able to relate to my trianing experiences and i can learn from others.
So all those seasoned Marathoners on here, if you give us newbies 1 tip what would it be?
Enjoy and savour every moment and mile of your first marathon, as whatever you do it in, it will be a PB when you cross the line, and it will be a very special moment, likely to very very emotional as well!
Good luck
Thanks guys, both great tips. I like the sound of the fact it will be a def PB! haha.
Don't piss off Seren Nos!
OK i'll remeber that tip! thanks Xyloid
I'm going to decide who to vote for by asking one question and the person with the best answer gets it.
What's you favourite Star Wars character ??
Definately R2D2 as I can relate to him on the same level.... #shorty
Hi Dave
Good to see someone else flying the flag for Swindon in the final round, its a shame we didn't get to meet at Boot Camp.
Obviously you got my vote in your category and thank you for mine.
I run with Swindon Striders as you can probably tell from the vest I also run regularly with Swindon Shin Splints.
Good luck with your voting campaign and hopefully we can keep in touch and i'll see you on the Swindon race circuits
Hi Marcus,
yes was was a shame our paths didn't cross on Friday. I run with the Slinn Allstars and have done for the past year.
I have already seen some of members voting for you too!
Yes good luck luck to you too, ParkRun sat??
Its good to see some of the Allstars voting for me also. My partner child minds for one of your club members children (Kim) and has been trying to get votes for me.
Im planning to do my first long run on Saturday but maybe I'll run to ParkRun, do the course and run home. If so I'll let you know.
Interesting, cheers
don't be so nasty......I'm a sensitive soul..........
There aren't enough runners in the forum to make much of a difference. I think most of the votes are coming from outside the running community!
As I suggested to Denise in Sub 5:
How about getting the whole of your county to vote for you? All your local running clubs, get your friends and families to retweet to their contacts to help with the votes? Do you work in a big organisation? Get them all involved! Sadly I cannot claim credit to any of these, they are not my ideas, they are what your fellow finalists are up to!
Good luck!
Hi David,
Pass on the tip of how to 'activate the glutes please'
I run similar times to you so if you get through I will be stalking you. I am running VLM next April.
Hi Jenf,
Sam Murphy gave us the tip of walking backward with a strong stride as part of the warm up. Was great in getting things going before starting off. you look a bit silly but it works. The other was the plank, bringing the core in and tensing the glutes. Start on the knees to get technique right if you find it hard. Do you have any?
Good luck with the VLM - i missed out on a ballot spot!
thanks for the tips on votes - my twitter has been on fire and just got the local rag to put an article up on their website.
up against Isobel - who seems to have had the whole Spain vote for her! haha. all good fun!
Thanks David, I do plank, but not tried walking backwards, I may give that a go, I don't care about looking silly!
Yeah, I was really lucky to get a ballot spot in VLM! I'm so looking forward to the experience, and the crowd support.
yeah I have heard that the atmosphere is amazing at VLM. You will love it.
As I sit and tuck into my egg and cress sandwich this lunchtime, one of lifes great questions has come to me...
'does cress count as one of your 5 a day, and if so how much do you have to eat'
As healthy runners i am sure someone knows the answer to this...
more than is in an egg sandwich!
what are your running plans this weekend?
haha, thats what I thought.
I was planning to do Parkrun but now have a personal training session booked in (booked on groupon for a very good price - check it out). I am looking to take the advice of building other activities into my trainning. particularly looking at weight trainning to supplement my running.
I will get out for a run on Sunday, looking at a 6miler this week.
What are your plans jenf?
One of the best bits of advice I had was
"If you want to get better at running, do more running"
Between my 2nd and 3rd marathon I took 20 mins off my PB and one of the changes was dropping from 3 gym sessions to 2 and upping 4 runs to 5 a week.
Some gym work is beneficial but only if it doesn't interfere with your running.
Good luck Dave!
14miles tomorrow. 5 on sunday and I love weight training!