It's a long road

As I run each day, well 5 times a week, I never seem to get that 6th run in at the moment, always something comes up.The thoughts keep coming into my head will I be able to do this mammoth task or have I bit off more than I can chew? I do not have the answer yet but I do know I will give it my best shot, for the 12 charities chosen, for my friends and family to be proud of and finally tom prove that a 50 odd year old guy can do it when he plans, trains and has the guts to do it.

I am running at least an hour and although it is slow about 10k, I remember when I ran that in 36+ mins!!! I did run 22 k on Sunday boy it was hard, a lot harder than I thought especially after I did run a marathon last month all be it very slow and did have to walk and run near the end, wow, those hills still give me nightmares, love you Cornwall but will never forget all those hills one after another.

It will be interesting to see if my months training for November goes as planned especially as we are now over half way through the month.

Until next time as the song say's 'Keep on Running'.

Edison Pena New York Marathon

A Chilean miner ran, walked and hobbled his way to the finish line of the New York City Marathon, showing the grit that helped him survive more than two months trapped underground.

Edison Pena crossed the Central Park finish line at 3.24pm local time, with a time of 5 hours, 40 minutes, 51 seconds. He was draped in a Chilean flag as Elvis music played over the speakers.

The 34-year-old survivor had beat his own goal - to complete the course through the city's five boroughs in six hours.

Bags of ice covered his swollen knees as a grim-faced Pena covered the last part of the 26.2-mile course.

"First, I want to run this marathon, but secondly, I'd like to motivate those people who aren't running the marathon to do so in the future," he said before starting. "I also want to especially motivate young children and youth to run because running makes you free."

Pena's personal victory came just weeks after he was still training in near-darkness, jogging each day 2,300 feet underground in stifling heat and humidity. He and 32 other men survived 69 days in the caved-in mine.

He said running was his salvation - his way of proving how much he wanted to live.

On a sunny day in Manhattan, the strong will that kept him focused came shining through. It didn't seem to matter to the world whether Number 7127 actually finished the race running into Central Park - or ended his first marathon barely making it. To the wildly cheering crowds, he was already a winner among the 45,000 runners, including some of the world's best marathon runners.

Pena has not competed in years as an amateur runner. And since the rescue, he covered only 6.5 miles as part of a triathlon team event in Chile on October 24.

On Sunday, he again was doing what he could, moving step by step, painfully, toward the Central Park finish line. And as he put it before leaving Chile for New York, he now faced "a new challenge - to care more deeply, to be more present with the people we love."

Coaster run GB

Over the summer an extraordinary event has been taking place. Starting at Blackpool Tower, this event has linked hundreds of people together in a single cause - to get a little wooden baton named Barry around the coast of Great Britain. Barry arrived back in Blackpool where the journey began arriving on 23rd October, my birthday. I am proud to have done my small bit in this inspiring event, well done to all who took part but a massive congratulations to the organisers.
Barry started life as a chunk of Old English Oak in deepest Lancashire and his life found purpose as the rather wacky idea was put forward to a running forum in December 2009. Barry was born as the idea became a reality and the little wooden fellow was launched from the Tower to start his epic journey. In just five months, purely over the internet, a group of people who had largely never met, had organised themselves enough to start getting Barry ‘round our wonderful coast. To date, he has covered well over 4,000 miles, being passed palm to palm, from the big starting post of Blackpool Tower, North into the craggy crevices of Scotland, down the whole East coast and across the very base of Blighty and up into Wales. In the process, hundreds have developed a special relationship with each other and with Barry. All felt a need to look after and nurture this little wooden wonder. Tears have even been shed as Barry left for the next leg of his journey. Some found themselves volunteering for future legs, simply to meet him again. Many, very together people found themselves talking to the little bit of woodwork. The apparent charisma of Barry has made the huge task of organising strangers into doing a relay around the coast of Great Britain, not only possible, but enjoyable and unforgettable.

No elite, in any boardroom, nor big financial backing could have made a coastal relay like CoastersGB such a success in such short time. Only a spirit of pulling together reminiscent of the blitz years in the name of getting a cute little baton ‘round the coast can do that, it seems. Technology has also played a role beyond getting strangers to talk to each other. From our website www.coastersgb.co.uk Barry’s whereabouts can be tracked and pictures of each leg of his journey found.