Tuesday 23 September 2008

Me and Franz

Thirteeen days and counting until the inaugural London Half-Marathon takes to the streets of Greenwich. Part sponsored by Sony Ericsson, the event has the tagline "Run-to-the-Beat" and the organisers have arranged for "scientifically selected" music to be played live around the course in order to enhance performance. A scientist with 20 years of study into the effects of music on sporting performance has been enlisted to oversee the music side of things, so this will be interesting.

Personally, I don't need any convincing of the benefits of good tempo, mood music to aid running. The back catalogue of Franz Ferdinand does it for me everytime and will accompany me on the headphones when I step out on 5th October.  Originally, it was the organisers intention not to allow competitors to wear MP3 players and the like but instead to force them to listen to the course bands, so presumably they have some real faith in the inspirational music tastes of Dr Costas Karageorghis. I can't see how they would have enforced this, so sense has obviously prevalied.

I have stuck to my training regime in terms of the running but the weight beyond a stone has been stubborn. I am redoubling my efforts over the coming fortnight as I really could do with losing the extra pounds. I actually ran the course over the weekend and it was much harder than I feared. It was warm and close to Midday when I started, so we should get more favourable conditions. It should also be a little easier running when the roads are closed and the track is smoothed out a bit. That's what I am telling myself anyway. 

I was confident of beating 2 hours and hopeful of getting close to 1.45 before I started. My run at the weekend was almost bang on 2 hours and the legs were feeling it during the last mile. I live in hope but 1.50 is probably unrealistic from here. I am beginning to wish they had a size handicap because I would feel far more confident running in my weight/height category!

There are around a dozen Charlton Lifers running, so we shouldn't be short of moral support.

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