Here goes

When I first started training for the Florence Marathon, I found a quote which really inspired me. It was from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus.
"First say to yourself what you would be. And then do what you have to do."

In fact, I thought it was so inspiring that I wrote it out on a scrap of paper which I safety pinned to my shirt before I set off.


And ever since then, I've not had an event to train for. So that's about to change. Here's the schedule of events in which I'm planning to participate over the next fifteen months:

Sept 2009 Bristol Half Marathon
Nov 2009 Athens Marathon
Mar 200 Bath Half Marathon
June 2010 Ironman (probably Ironman France or Ironman UK)
Sept 2010 Ironman 70.3 Monaco
Nov 2010 NYC Marathon

Of course, some of these might have to change because of work commitments, etc. And now I've said what I would be, I'd better start doing what I have to do.

Changes

To date, this blog has been a tedious account of training runs. I haven't written anywhere about what's happening in my working life, about the various adventures that I've had on my recent travels and about the extraordinary changes going on around me in both everyday life and - even more dramatically - the business in which I work.

All of that is about to change.

Service Resumed

So what happened? It's more than eight months since I posted on this site. In the meantime, I've

• Run the Florence marathon in November 2008. 4hrs 24.
• Blown up in the Bath half marathon, March 2009. I'd aimed to run it in under 100 mins, didn't train enough and went off too hard. The result was that I had to walk a lot of it and finished the course in a deeply unimpressive 2hrs 3mins.
• Been to the Middle East six times in the last six months
• Flown to Singapore and back twice
• Rounded off all that travel with a trip to Belgium at the beginning of June.

Eleanor came home from her residential course with gifts for everyone. A notebook for her mum, a pencil for her brother. I got a bar of chocolate. Strangely, though, a third of the bar was missing...

An Accidental Eighteen Miles

Here's the first non-running post. It's from an email that I received yesterday
"Building the Creative Business Graduates and Friends

I am pleased to tell you of a new two-day executive education programme at London Business School called Growing Your Business. Modelled after the award-winning course we run annually for the Young Presidents’ Organisation, this programme assists entrepreneurs and executives running fast-growing businesses in managing the challenges that rapid growth always brings. Designed for entrepreneurs (attending solo) or their top management teams (attending as a team), the course will send participants back to the office on the following Monday with a prioritized growth plan in hand.

Growing Your Business will bring together entrepreneurs and executives from around the world to wrestle interactively with real-world case studies dealing with the challenges of high growth. Meeting the protagonists in some of these cases – live, face-to-face – will bring to life the issues they faced and how they addressed them. And building new relationships with others on the programme will extend your global network as only London Business School does so well.

With big companies likely to scale back in the face of today’s economic turmoil, the stage is set for entrepreneurs to take advantage of a less competitive marketplace. My London Business School colleague John Mullins and I hope many in the BCB community running fast-growing businesses, and/or their teams, will join us in February at the School."

I received this because of the course that I did at the London Business School at the end of 2005. I'm not going to do this course - it costs nearly three grand. But it's the sentence at the end of the last para that really intrigued me.

And in the meantime, while I haven't blogged, I've been a lot better at running. Eighteen miles on Saturday, then another six on Monday. I've got 16 miles lined up with Thom Bunting for this afternoon.

CBA

7 miles. Should have been 13. Got cold and bored.

Compromise

I've got myself tangled up here.
I'm in London Tues and Weds next week, the days of my long run. And the kids are with me this weekend.

I'm supposed to have done 4 miles yesterday and 6 tomorrow. So instead I got up early, while Rona and Paddy were able to provide babysitting cover, and ran 5.

5.2 miles at 9.11 a mile.

I found myself at Morrisons at 8.02am, buying dog biscuits.

Now there's a first.

Running Into The Dark

12 miles tonight.

First time that I've run with Thom Bunting. He's the guy whose idea this was in the first place.
Great. Like sitting in the pub chatting.

And when I told my mum I was doing this marathon, her line was
"Why are you doing that?"