Ajay does the London Marathon - please sponsor me

[ajay khandelwal]

Yesterday I was outing running with the Dulwich runners - the running equivalent of ACC - friendly, large (50 + runners out on a Wednesday evening), competitive and with lots on for novices. The oldest member out was Don, an 80 year old record holder who could out run me ! I went with the novices, led by a fireman from Croydon station. The only other runner was a woman who had given birth 10 weeks ago... It was a nice run and on the way round I saw Adrian Ashworth riding the Col de la Fontaine Wed evening training group.

I've got 14 weeks training to go.
Please have a look at my sponsorship page.
I'm going to keep a blog of my running exploits on this page (instead of telling you how I was almost a contender at hillingdon all year! )

http://www.bhf.org.uk/sponsorship/spons ... geID=18886

or type ajay khandelwal bhf sponsorship into google, thanks !

[adrian]

Yes, a pleasure to see you, Ajay, however fleetingly. I would have come up with a quip and a pithy rejoinder but at that moment had to concentrate on not being squished by a huge juggernaut - don't know if you noticed.

I'd just taken my leave of Mr R Appleton and was minded to turn for home, but was inspired to go round one more time.

Great effort for an excellent cause - I've dipped into Mrs A's housekeeping to make a small donation.

Best of luck to you and Ninder over the next couple of weeks - see you soon.

[Dr Frigo]

You don't say if you are going to be wearing a fancy dress Ajay. I expect at least a funky hat.

Is it ok to give you a cheque next time I see you? (just went through a credit card cancellation due to probably online fraud).

[Andrew G]

Good luck Ajay, and a good way to see the sights of London. Best of luck with hitting your target.
[quote]instead of telling you how I was almost a contender at hillingdon all year!

[Jon H]

Good luck Ajay - Super-Ajay costume on the day presumeably?

[ajay khandelwal]

yes...i'm thinking of fancy dress - doing it on a bike !
Thanks very much for all the generous contribution posted so far

[Gavin]

What is your target time AJ?

[ajay khandelwal]

Its creeping up as reality is sinking in! Sub 5 hours ill be pleased; and how's your recovery going ?

[Gavin]

5 hours well thats faster than me it took me nearly 6 hours.

although i was at 15 miles at just over 2 hours then it all went wrong!

don't panic though I found no matter how slow I was going there was always someone behind me. Mind you he might be a man in a diving suit though.


Recovery is slow not going to be on a bike for a while as the pain is still there and jarring is the worst thing for it. Have been swimming once and that was ok.

G

[Alan M]

Ajay - I will sponsor you when the time comes but only if you complete!! Oh, and I hope the lovely child and mother are well and that dad is back to work following his paternity slacking off (leave)

Gav .... I was so sorry to hear that you wiped out - but pleased that you are getting better - does that mean you are back at work and among the walking wounded? I can only imagine how uncomfortable it has been - hopefully the return of warm weather and your fitness and health will coincide.

best wishes


Alan

[ajay khandelwal]

Hi guys...an update on my training so far. I've been out with the Dulwich runners twice a week. On Tuesdays I've been going to Ladywell Athletics track and on Wednesday going for a run from Burbage Road. I can run 10 - 11 minute miles without injury. My longest run has been for about 90 minutes so far. But still with new baby I'm finding too many excuses not to run.

I went for a training day with the BHF this Sunday in Kingston. Very interesting, the coach, Keith, was a smoking 14 stone chef at the age of 30 but once he got into running he ended up representing Great Britain in the Olympics at the age of 41 ! He did a 2.17 marathon around the same time. He now lives in Provence and is full time coach ! His training was very good and concise. Basically, he has advised us to do a long run every week, working upto 17 miles one month before the marathon. But his focus is that we do Kenyan Hill efforts once a week; and also that we do threshold efforts once a week (he's been learning from Toks). Also, I can do some cross training in the gym without injury - as I can only add 10 minutes a week onto my road running time safely. He focused a lot on diet. No alcohol for me for next ten weeks, and I'm cutting out sugar and fats too. I plan to get lighter for race. I'm doing a half marathon on Sunday 18th in Brighton and will let you know how I'm doing. Thanks for those of you who have kindly sponsored me. I know Gavin's done the marathon (sub 5.25 is my target time lanyone else in the club done it ?)

[ajay khandelwal]

Gavin I just re read your post - you did 15 miles in 2 hours
So it took you 4 hours to do the last 11.2 ? Come on tell us what happened?

[Gavin]

Lets just say it didn't go very well.

[huw williams]

My first love was marathons

PB was 2.48 but that was a long, long time ago

[ajay khandelwal]

Hey guys I never knew....Addiscombe is teeming with some marathon machines. Amazing.
Ajay's blog
Miles this week : 0
Miles today : 0
Weight this morning 79kg
BMI : 26
Injuries: swelling on left foot in fold of flesh between big toe and ball of foot
Calories so far : 2 shredded wheat and 3 cups of sugarless tea
Pack lunch - 2 brown bread ham sandwiches, 1 apple, 1 banana and I raspberry and Turkish Yoghurt

I spent yesterday evening gearing up for training by watching 'Masterchef' . All that food looks lovely. But I can't have any as I'm sticking to an alcohol and cake free diet. I then watched 'Million pound give away' and cried at the all the tear jerking stories. I need some testerone patches. Looks like I'm just going to end up in an inert blob crying my way through this marathon business. Unable to move from the sofa or go for a run do pain in toe I watched 2 more programmes. In between I took baby Priya up and gave her an olive oil massage and a bath. Calories burned 0. Minutes on the road: 0. Time on sofa: loads.

About 9pm I got a call from a guy called Kevin who lives around the corner who I met on the BHF training day on Sunday. He told me how he's done 20 miles in the last 2 days. Couldn't wait for him to get off the phone. This guy was seriously depressing me with his talk of Kenyan Hill efforts.

Still planning to go out and do an easy run with Dulwich runners this evening. Was a bit embarassing last week as I pushed myself up the hors cat College Road, overtaking a few runners. But when I got to the top and stopped to do up my shoe laces, I found I couldn't get going again. I walked the last 4 miles of the run, dodging the enquiries from runners behind me. Don't want to repeat that again. So will be going steady. Like Marco said, its not good to run a marathon without training and pretending to be someone you are not.