A weighty issue

I’ve had a really awesome weekend of running for several reasons. Firstly the sun was shining, which always puts me in a good mood. Secondly I began my taper, which means the end is nigh (and I have considerably more energy)! And finally, but personally most importantly, I won a silver medal in our monthly club handicap run on Saturday morning. I’ve never won a running medal in my life, so I am feeling very pleased with myself for this!

The club handicap starts everyone off at different times, depending on previous race performance, which means, all things being equal, you should all cross the line together. This also means anyone can win it, not just the fastest people (which I am nowhere near being). But it does reward the improvers. And for some reason, I have managed to improve more than I had realised...hey, I am not going to complain! In fact I am so chuffed, I’ve uploaded a picture of my medal and confirmation text.

























Sunday was also a fantastic day – I ran the last half of the marathon route with some of the runners from the club. It was great to familiarise myself with where the marathon takes us – I suspect I noticed a lot more on Sunday than I will on race day! The group I was with ran at a nice steady 9 minute mile pace, which was perfect for enjoying the route and the day.

Some of my observations from doing this included:
- Why does the marathon route twist and turn through Canary Wharf? These switchbacks must be hell on the knees of the super speedy, and are very annoying at my sedate pace!!
- The route is not intuitive! A map was definitely required to get around (and in fact the 8 min mile group added a couple of extra miles to their ‘half’ by missing a turn or two). Thankfully the pavements will be lined with supporters and there’ll be a lovely stripe on the road to follow on the big day.
- When you get to the river and you can see Big Ben in the distance, it is further than you think to the finish line as that river bend is deceptively long, plus there is the switchback on yourself around St James’ Park! Do not be deceived by this.
- Tourists seem to walk in huge spread out groups and don’t move even if you yell at them a lot. They were out in their droves on Sunday! At least they’ll be kept off the route when it really matters.

This week’s topic for discussion is all about weight – after all, it’s the reason a lot of people take up running in the first place. It’s often seen as the miracle cure for the overweight lard-ass...which is roughly where I began my marathon journey from.

This time around, I’ve managed to lose quite a lot of weight while training for the marathon. It’s actually not been massively a conscious effort to do so, but I am quite pleased with the results! I started training in November last year, and I seemed to be the only person I know who lost weight over the Christmas period rather than gaining it, so that was definitely a good start!

To give you a few statistics, I’m 1.7m tall. Before I started training, I weighed in at fairly cuddly 72kgs (11.3 stone apparently), with around a third body fat... oh yes, a third of me was all lard! That converted to about a generous size 14.

I took stock mid-February and noted that the weigh-in saw me at 65kgs (10.2 stone), and about 21% body fat, which is a massive improvement. My clothes size had dropped considerably too, and I was about a size 11...annoyingly! At that point, I noted that, in my adult life, I’d never broken the 10 stone barrier!! In fact that reminds me of a conversation I had once with a particularly lithe colleague. She explained to me that she used to do heaps of sport and be way heavier... she weighed ten stone in those days. “Honey,” I told her, “I *DREAM* of being ten stone!”. Cue slightly embarrassed silence all around...

So, where am I at now? The official figures from the scales last night tell me I am 63kgs and 19.3% body fat. I’ve seen these figures vary a bit, depending on time of day and week, and I’ve been as low as 61kgs and 17% body fat, so, by some miracle I have officially broken that 10 stone barrier (which is just above 63kgs)...although seem to teeter around it more than anything!

I found it quite interesting to note that my BMI weight can be anything between 52kgs and 72kgs to be considered ‘healthy’. That’s a BMI of 18-25, which is calculated by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing it by your height in metres, squared, e.g. 63/(1.7)2 = 21.8. I really don’t think I’d look very healthy at all if I was to lose another 10kgs!

I’m now in a clothes size 10, and am getting lots of really great compliments about the way I look (except from my Nan, who thinks I am now incredibly skinny and could do with fattening up a bit, but that’s Nan’s for you!). The challenge is going to be maintaining this once the marathon is over, because I certainly can’t afford ANOTHER new wardrobe!

And for those who think I have found my ‘miracle cure’ that I mentioned earlier on... I still have cellulite, so it’s not all coming up roses just yet!! Perhaps it’s all the cake I am still eating...

Amy:
I am very disappointed to say that my weight has hardly changed at all! Incredibly unjust I feel as I have never done so much exercise in my life! Apparently I look a little more toned (I’m completely ignoring the fact that that’s just what people say when they can’t see any difference). But I am certainly not in the ideal figure I optimistically imagined I could achieve back in the early days of training. In fact, I have even noticed my skinny jeans are a little tight around the calf area –stupid muscles have just got bigger! I am determinedly clinging on to the hope that perhaps I will suddenly drop a stone, as like Gemma, I would also love to break that 10 stone barrier!