Whenever I read ‘Runners World’ it is full of inspirational stories about how running changed people’s lives, how they started running and lost 10 stone and did their first marathon in under three hours.  Whilst I am sure these stories are meant to be highly motivational they do nothing for the plodders like me who never get any faster now matter how much they run.  I have often cheered myself up by disbelieving these stories  in the same way I disregard the true life weight loss stories in Weight Watchers magazine. This was until last night.  After a gentle plod around Lingfield with 2 members of the running club I got chatting to a lady called Maxine who had only taken up running in October at the age of 45.  She had lost 4 1/2 stone since then and ran the London Marathon in April in  4 1/2 hours.  This is so unfair when I am hoping to stagger around New York in 6 hours in November.  I couldn’t even dismiss her as a fictional character as she was standing in front of me with a Jessica Ennis stomach, so I stumbled home all depressed.  Apparently your maximum fitness potential is determined by how fit you are in your teens.  In my teens I was 12 stone with the nickname of ‘Dustbin’ and a love of Marathons only of the chocolate kind.

Think I am going to publish a magazine for people like me called ‘Slow Runners World’.

I am running the New York Marathon 2013 for Macmillan Cancer Support. If you are enjoying reading my blogs please donate at: http://www.justgiving.com/jayneandtrevorwebb