My current favourite running/motivation hack is absurdly simple - I get my girlfriend to drop me off on the side of the road on her way to church…
The way back is a clear, mostly straight route which I’m pretty much stuck on - There are no short-cuts, no shelter, no way back, no lift - it’s a simple choice between run or freeze.
I always enjoy my running, but sometimes I need that little extra kick to get me out of the door - this hack never fails!
I heard via email and post yesterday that I was unsuccessful in getting a ballot place in the Flora London Marathon for next year.
Now that I have heard I am filled with a mixture of disappointment and relief! On one hand I am really keen to test my running mettle against the supreme challenge of a Marathon; on the other I still feel that one ridiculously tough challenge is enough for next year!
I am going to keep applying for the marathon every year from now, until I successfully get a place - I am confident that when the time is right, I’ll get a place and be able to participate.
Maybe that will be a future annual fund-raising challenge for me - To run the London Marathon, though in order to compete with Kilimanjaro I’ll have to do it in a ridiculous costume.
Please post suggestions for a potential costume in the comments!
I don’t quite know why, but any email I receive that is even remotely related to the London Marathon always seems to bring me out in a cold sweat…
I just received an email notifying me that I will soon be notified whether I have got a place in the Marathon next year. Nice - thanks for the heart attack.
Like the climb, as much as I like the idea of the marathon, there is a little boy inside me that keeps hoping that if he closes his eyes and wishes real hard that it will all go away and he won’t have to run 26 miles or climb a big-ass african rock.
I’ll keep you all posted about the state of my nerves and my results as and when I get them…
That’s it then… As of today, no-one else can enter the ballot for the Flora London Marathon for 2008.
I am still holding a very positive intention for a place in next years Marathon - with it coming 3 months before the main Kili climb, I know that it will be a great milestone for my training. I was one of 10,000 people who entered online in only 6 days - competition for the places will be fierce, and as a rookie I am somewhere near the bottom of the pile.
“What you focus on grows” though, so I have been trying to spend 10-15 minutes a day holding positive thoughts about getting a place (and not bricking it about the distance). If you want to help out, and can’t donate, then please do the same and support me with your mind!
Ultimately, things will work out for the best, and if I don’t get a place then it’s probably because the team upstairs only want my ass kicked once next year 
Yay me! I have just returned victorious from my first ever race - A simple (but not easy) 5K at the local athletics center.
Despite feeling like barely-animated death as I went round, I feel fabulous now and am so proud of myself for not dropping out (despite great temptation). All the usual highs associated with running are buzzing through me ten-fold, and I feel like I could take on the world…
Not bad for a guy with a stinking head cold, and a strained knee!
My genuine thanks to my fab running buddy Debi (she beat my time by loads), and to Neale for coming along and supporting me (and taking the pic below).
I have officially become a maven of bad ideas…
As of about 5 minutes ago, I am an entrant in the Flora London Marathon 2008. Not only have I put myself forward to voluntarily force my still-overweight frame over 26.2 tortuous miles of London tarmac, I’ve had to pay 30-odd quid for the privilege.
The likelihood of a place for a rookie like myself is slim, as there are a lot of people entering for very few places - with many going to people who have entered multiple times before and been turned down (no surprises, this is my first go). I am not going to let this phase me, and am confident that if I the Universe wants me to have a place, then I’ll get one.
To everyone out there reading this now… I’ve got to wait till the end of November before I’ll find out, so if you want to send any positive vibes my way I’ll be eternally grateful (though I may curse your name on the day 
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How Exercise affects us…
As a budding Personal Development author (check back soon for more details), I am always curious about how different activities affect us - our moods, our thoughts, our physical condition. Having completed a grueling long-run on Sunday, when this exact topic was occupying my mind, I have been gathering my ideas and thought I’d post a summary.
Understanding your Dominant State
Before I get on to exercise, it’s important to understand an important metric in evaluating how different activities and relationsips can affect us - it’s called State.
Simply put, your state at any given time is the sum total of all your thoughts, all your feelings and the physical condition of your body. It’s never fixed - your state is constantly changing, depending on the situations you are moving between, the people you’re with and the different actions you’re undertaking.
All of us, no matter what the specifics of our life situation are, have a dominant state - the state which we normally occupy for most of the day. This might be high-energy, very positive and optimistic at one end of the spectrum and at the other, a dominant state might be lethargic, bloated, negative and stressed.
How would you describe your dominant state? Remember to examine your thoughts, your feelings and how your body seems…
How exercise affects your Dominant State
From my own research, as well as having read a lot of exercise books and articles, I believe that the initial few minutes of any exercise routine induce a spike towards your dominant state - If you’re quite a positive, healthy person you’ll get a positive energy boost - If you’re quite a negative person, or are feeling tired, lethargic or stressed in any way, you’ll get a boost of negative energy (which may spur you to give up).
However, after the initial few minutes (as long as you’re not pushing yourself too hard), the energy will continue to build, but only in a positive direction - To again compare the two ends of the spectrum, the positive person would continue to feel good as they stick with it; the negative person would feel a lessening of their negativity and would feel better.
In the case of the negative person, the eventual state they reach might not be completely positive, but would be a marked improvement on where they were when they started. By continuing to exercise, they would gradually improve their dominant state towards a more positive level.
None of this is new information - many of us know that exercise will be of benefit to us, either physically or mentally, but I think this is a good way of looking at how exercise can affect our moods and attitude.
For myself, I know that a run before work - no matter how hard it is to get up and go - will always result in a positive improvement in state, giving me more energy, more patience and a boost in productivity that easily outstrips the days when I don’t run.
The next time you’re about to exercise, or are feeling unmotivated to exercise, have a think about your state - Decide whether you want to continue to feel the same way, or whether you want to do something about it…
I’d love any feedback on this concept, so please email me, or leave your view in the comments.