Craig Batterham writes:
You may know me from….
…such things as Monday Club Runs, leading some track or hill sessions or more recently, posting most weeks on Facebook for volunteers for the club runs. Maybe you are one of the Eagles I have bumped into in the start pen of a race or at one of the Summer League or XC races I managed to get to this year. A quick check of Facebook tells me that there are 713 members, and this is after Babs and Nick having a bit of a clear out a few months back. So there are still a lot of unfamiliar faces I see in Eagles gear at races or at events that I don’t know. Hello to all of you.
I was given explicit instruction at the party to make these blogs interesting and not just ‘I ran this distance, then I ran that distance.’ I will do my best but I cannot promise you will be enthralled all the way up to April.
Let me start with how truly grateful I am that England didn’t equalise in the match against France and put me through having to patiently wait through extra time and penalties during the EE Christmas party. There was a little announcement due to be made that night that held a greater personal interest for me, would my name be drawn for one of the club spots at the London Marathon?
I had fallen just shy of getting the maximum points for the draw so it was still a surprise to me when I got the automatic place and I am very proud to be able to represent the club that has given me so much in the sixteen months since I joined. There have been so many people in the club that have helped and inspired me in numerous ways and I am sure they will get a mention in this blog somewhere along the road. If you think you could be one of those special individuals and your name is going to appear a bit further down then I am afraid today is not your day, this one’s all about me. I’m hoping future blogs touch on different topics and make them, as requested, interesting.
I’m writing this at the start of this particular journey, for me this is a 3 year plan to run all of the Abbot World Marathon Majors starting with London, qualifying for Boston along the way and, if everything goes to plan, culminating in Chicago in 2025. All because I want to add that medal to my collection and never have to run a marathon again. I’m going to say right now that I happily self identify as a magpie runner and love collecting the shiny things. I know that I would never be able to achieve all of this alone so I have signed up with Jenny Bushell for 1-2-1 coaching. At the very least this will give me someone else to blame if I miss my targets!
Seriously, we have already been working together for a good number of weeks now and I can see a consistent up-tick in the performance metrics on Training Peaks and feels great having someone else pick out the structure for the coming weeks, not having to worry my lazy ass too much about it. The marathon training doesn’t start until the 2nd January so isn’t up on TP yet so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store and working my way through it.
With the year drawing to a close with just a few runs left I am happy to be finishing on a high. This year has been tough with a couple of injuries, around nine weeks off running, an MRI and physio for the first time in my life and redundancy after the company I worked for went pop. I’m now settled in a new company with some exciting challenges and opportunities and in the last few weeks I have secured places in the London and New York Marathons for 2023 and signed up for another Ultra in the summer. Bring it on!
