Chris Smart of Weymouth who is currently training for the marathon as part of Charity Support has been given a well needed training boost to his 200 mile a month training schedule by Steve Churchhill from the Budmouth gym.

As every runner will know and empathise with, training for any sporting event is not easy, especially the gruelling 26.2 miles of the London marathon. If it was just a case of turning up on the day and running it, that would be great, but it is not as easy as that. I would just like to share with you all a quick insight to what it is like training for a marathon.

The main point is allowing yourself enough time to train for the event, as a soldier I have the added advantage of having to stay reasonably fit at all times, for the individual who is not use to it, time appreciation is imperative. The aim is to find a comfortable pace and build distance on your pace. There is no laid down rule on how much and at what distance you should do, your body will let you know. One of the most important areas of training is allowing your body to recover, If you don’t allow this to happen you will start taking backward steps and incurring injuries.

The training thus far for me has taken it out on my knees with the amount of road running I have been doing. So for me the recovery periods has been very important, but don’t allow yourself to panic train because you don’t feel you are not doing enough or you’re running out of time, this can be detrimental.

If you can, try and find running routes that may have some grassed areas or gravel, just to ease the constant pounding to your knees. I have been lucky this week by receiving a very kind offer from Steve, who said, I'm more than happy to help, having done the marathon a couple of years ago myself I know exactly how difficult the training can be. So I am now allowed to use his Gym 2-3 times a week to run on the soft matting of a treadmill.

In conclusion, marathon running is not just getting to the start line and of you go for 26 miles, it is all the hard work prior to it, which really warrants that individual to be sponsored. I personally have covered over 200 miles a month since November, which means by the time of the London marathon I would have run over a 1000 miles in training. So when you see people out and about on the streets just give them a thought and appreciate what they are trying to achieve. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who continues to support me during my build up and all the very kind donations and prizes from the community.

Please continue to support me, even a message in my guest book on the website is a sign of support. Thank you.
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