Less about finish time, more about the legs! (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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Less about finish time, more about the legs!
1:18pm Thursday 4th March 2010
By Sam Blakey »
RUNNING distances of over 10 miles is hard, but what keeps me going if I am really honest is something significantly more enticing but far less worthy than the sense of achievement that’s guaranteed at the end and the charity that will benefit.
Yes, I admit it – it’s the calories, or rather lack of, that are also a guaranteed bonus of a good burnout. When I was training for the New York Marathon eight years ago, I was also doing Weight Watchers and was the trimmest I had been since my wedding day. In fact, the photo of me crossing the finish line is one of my favourites – not merely because of the impressive feat it marks, but because on seeing it, one of my friends’ exclaimed I had Victoria Beckham legs (that’s the old shapely VB, btw.) My cup runneth over!
But fast-forward five years and I was not so proud of my London Marathon pics – not least because the winter training had taken its toll. The only thing that had got me through each gruelling, cold, wet and miserable training run was the big slab of Dairy Milk waiting at the end!
Needless to say, far from being proud of those photos, I found myself airbrushing out the flabby thighs rather crudely with a black felt tip pen. This time, however, I am aiming for the VB look again – in fact I’ll probably be as chuffed with a fab shot of my legs running across Tower Bridge as I would be a sub 4:30 finish time and I really, really want that!
