The One Where I Talk About Hamish Blake and Week 3 of Pre-Training

The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer makes it very clear early on that the only goal a non-runner attempting their first marathon should have is to finish. The authors say it's a big mistake (the biggest, according to them) to set a target time. So I'm not going to set a time goal or worse, do a Hamish Blake and try and beat anyone else's time - if I complete the marathon before they start packing up the course, that counts as success for me. (For the record, Hamish, without any training or preparation, beat Katie Holmes' 5 hours, 29 minutes and 58 seconds time by 4 minutes and 49 seconds.).

So, no time goal, no trying to beat someone else's time - although I'm conscious that Chilean miner, Edison Pena, did the 2010 New York marathon in 5 hours, 40 minutes and 51 seconds - and that's after being stuck down a mine for 69 days. Fortunately, Al Roker, the weatherman from the US 'Today' show completed it in 7 hours and 9 minutes and 44 seconds. So if I give in and start comparing, I'm thinking that as long as I am somewhere on a sliding scale between 5 hours 30 minutes and Al Roker, I can be happy.

As for me, I'm still in Pre-Training, of course, (and will be until early February). I'm now into the fast walking stage (8- 10 minutes a kilometre) and managed my scheduled three walks this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning. I did procrastinate a bit when I was entering this stage as it was a move into a harder level (so Tuesdays walk was actually supposed to be Sunday's walk, which then became Monday's walk and when I finally couldn't put it off any longer for fear of  mucking up the schedule, Tuesday's walk).

When I started, I was just trying literally to walk really fast and I found that to be sore on the front of my shins. It was actually more comfortable to do a bit of jogging and a bit of walking so that's what I ended up doing.  And, although the Friday walk was social and I didn't quite make the 10 minutes a kilometre target on that walk, the average of all three walks this week was 9 minutes 50 seconds a kilometre. So I'm calling that a win. Don't burst my bubble on that one, people.

The week ahead, Week 4 of Pre-Training, involves four of the thirty minute fast walks. The heat, the post-Christmas sloth and the out of whack body clock could present challenges. But this marathon isn't going to run itself. So four walks it shall be.