After an inadequate amount of training (or so it seemed on the day), yours truly completed a 26.2-mile marathon with a fantastic bunch of runners, brilliant support staff, and even more support from everybody we encountered in Liverpool, lots of waving, honking cars, more jelly babies and bananas being thrust at you than you could handle and to top it all the weather was perfect.
So, I am now able to lay claim to the title of marathon runner!
Having run 26.2miles or 42km for the first time (and the last two and a half miles were a real killer) and everybody had all the belts to hold their energy gels, vaseline to prevent chafing, and clothes with a "Moisture Transport System that wicks sweat away from the body" it was great to read about this:
"A 22-year-old woman from Mexico's Tarahumara indigenous community has won a 50km (31 miles) ultramarathon wearing sandals.
María Lorena Ramírez defeated 500 other runners from 12 countries in the female category of the Ultra Trail Cerro Rojo in Puebla, in central Mexico.
She ran without any professional gear, and her pair of sandals was reportedly made from recycled tyre rubber."
I'm not saying that I don't want my lightweight shorts and cushioned trainers, though there was one chap this weekend that I saw running barefoot (no evidence of blood or lacerations at 9 miles in )
but the "can do" and the raising of the bar of what is probably an accepted norm within the community tribe of María Lorena Ramírez just shows the untapped capabilities within each of us.
The tribe is also mentioned in "Eat and Run" by the ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek.
You can get the full article courtesy of the BBC here
We ran the 26.2 miles, and that fits right in with our practiced ethos, we do run the extra miles for our customers, and we have been doing this since María Lorena Ramírez was just 4 years old in fact, and we are chuffed to say we have customers from those very early days too.