I get it now

Something strange happened to me last night. Something I've never experienced before. I was walking home from the shop (where I totally did not purchase a pizza and a beer for tea) when two people ran past me in the opposite direction. It was cold and it was dark and it was almost half past seven. The rush hour traffic had moved on. Headlights and tailights glowed in every direction. The world was tinged with the orange hue of streetlights. Dark clouds hung overhead, blotting out the stars and threatening rain.

Kinda like this, but less blurry.

The two runners both both looked pretty damn miserable, like they were trying to get this over with and go back home to be warm. Their cheeks were red. They were breathless, but trying to talk as they ran. Both of them looked like they would have given anything to have traded places with me, to be going home with dinner - which, again, was absolutely not a pizza and a beer.

And you know what? I would have traded with them.

For the first time in my life, I saw someone running in pretty crappy conditions and my first thought was, Damn, that should be me. That's never happened to me before. Even just a month or two ago, I wouldn't have felt that way. But now I get it. Now I understand the drive, the motivation, the desire. My body is bursting with energy. If I don't run - or even make the time for a short workout at home - I can't sleep. I keep glancing at the calendar, watching the date slowly draw closer, knowing the enormity of the challenge that lies ahead. I really want to do this.

It's now almost six pm on a Tuesday evening and I'm glancing out the window to check the weather. It hasn't rained for a while (absolutely hammered down while I was in town earlier with my lady, smashing the Christmas shopping). A little voice in my head is telling me to do it. Go for it. When else are you going to get the chance to train?

If you're out in the cold, dark night and you see people running for fun, don't be too harsh on them. I'm one of them now. I get why they do it.

A week off!

I'm off work all next week, and a bit of the week after. My fiancé is taking the same time off, too. We have plenty of plans. Some fun (dinner dates!), some romantic (giving notice of marriage!), some inevitably tedious (Christmas shopping!). It's going to be a great week.

It gets more accurate every time I look at it.

And with plenty of free time, I'm hoping to get several good runs in during this abscence. A week off from work doesn't mean a week off from training. The best part of having this time will be the luxury of choosing when I get to hit the road/ treadmill. Avoiding the traffic? Yes please! No pedestrians cluttering the pavements and gazing over my shoulder at the bus? Go on then! A slightly warmer temperature for running? If you insist!

I don't know if I'll be updating this blog in that time, but there will definitely be regular updates on my Facebook profile. Ciao for now.

I would rather be in the warm

At seven fifteen this morning, I left the warmth and comfort of my home and set off on a run around the area. Holy hell, it was cold. Ice clung to car windscreens. Patches of frost lay strewn about the pavements. People huddled in bus stops wearing hats and gloves and scarves. The scent of de-icer filled my nostrils. The temperature hovered just below zero degress for the duration of the run.

Pretty good, all things considered.

Luckily, the agonies of being outside wearing skin-tight running gear fade away pretty quickly, once you get started. By the time I reached the bottom of my road, I no longer felt cold. (By the end, I could no longer feel my fingers, but that's about normal for being outdoors in freezing temperatures).

The thing that surprised me the most was how much it hurt to breathe. Inhaling deep gulps of cold air is pretty damn painful. Icy oxygen reaching the insides of warm lungs feels like someone jabbing at your throat from the inside. While this sensation does come to a pass fairly quickly (within the first mile or so), it feels uncomfortable for that length of time. Like, really uncomfortable.

So I finished the run and hopped in the shower and turned the heat up and felt my skin try to tear itself away from my body. Turns out that cold sweat, cold skin and warm water is the exact recipe to cause extreme pain. My chest and stomach turned bright red and it felt like dozens of needles were being driven into my skin over and over, all at the same time. Note to self: have a cold shower first and turn the heat up slowly.

Despite all the discomfort and pain and aches, I now know that it's possible to run in freezing conditions. This is good. I can hold onto this knowledge. My running gear does a damned fine job of keeping me warm in spite of the chill. I know I can do it - and my mileage is better than on the treadmill. If push comes to shove, I'll be out there in the dead of winter, panting and sweating while people watch, clutching mugs of hot chocolate and wondering why the hell anyone would be running in these temperatures.

Effing earphones

I have been through four pairs of earphones since this running adventure began six months ago. Four. Does that seem like a disproportionately high figure? I can't tell. It's not like I'm smashing my ears on the scenery as I run, either. I'm not a total moron... mostly.

Nothing this extreme, annoyingly.

Pair number one was a lovely set of Bluetooth push-in earphones with a small rubber grip to keep them from slipping out while moving. They were comfortable, the battery life was excellent, they were lightweight and never caused me any problems. Until the rubber cable pulled out of the right ear, making them unusable.


Pair number two was the same model, in a different colour. These were fine until sweat managed to get inside the unit and completely destroy the electronics, rendering them entirely useless.


Pair number three was another Bluetooth set I bought with the sweat problem in mind. They were cheap and - to their credit - they are indeed sweat-proof. However, that's the only positives I have to say about this pair. The problems are numerous. For starters, the volume, pause, phone, and skip functions are all on this little bar that hangs down from the right ear about an inch or two.

That's about six or seven inches

This should be fine, in theory, but when you run, this bar starts to swing. Get a good pace going and the control bar constantly slaps you in the chin. It's beyond irritating. The only way to counter this is to tuck the bar into your shirt, but if the wire is stretched, it loses connection and starts jumping through the songs. Plus it likes to randomly disconnect while you're running and if the bar gets caught in the collar of your shirt, the control can buttons can get completely jammed, meaning the volume raises or lowers or the songs start skipping entirely. There is nothing more annoying than having a song jump mid-stride. Plus the battery life is shocking. They need charging after a decent 90 minute run, or they'll cut out next time. This pair lasted only a few runs until the lower volume button got stuck. Thank goodness they were cheap.


The fourth and most recent pair was the wired set that came with my phone. It was fine - light, comfortable, and the control bar didn't move too much. The rubber grips had a tendency to slide out if sweat managed to get into the ear, but that was manageable. This pair broke in the gym last week when the bloody lower volume button got stuck, rendering them bloody useless.


So now I'm running with a very comfortable pair of wired headphones. So far, so good. And better sound, too... for now!

How long until this happens?

Forward always

With visiting family, seeing friends, and trying to sort out a million and one jobs at home this weekend, I barely had any time to squeeze a run into my schedule. Luckily, I managed to eek out a spare hour and run six laps of my home estate.

Seven miles! Not too bad for a lazy Sunday.

I'm getting fairly adept at running these shorter distances, but this is starting to worry me. I'm good at the first seven or eight miles, but after that I begin to struggle. What will happen to me on the day? What if I reach eight miles and still have a further eighteen to run on wobbly legs? What if I put all this time and effort into training and fail to get my body prepared for the epic length of the marathon?


Maybe I'm just worrying unnecessarily. Lots of people have pointed out to me that I don't need to run the entire marathon - walk is totally understandable and probably inevitable. I understand this, I really do. At some point, I'll need to slow down and walk part of the distance.


But I want to run that course as far and as fast as I can. I want to sail through the winding London streets and know that I did it. I did this. I went from couch potato to a marathon runner in less than a year. I can do it. I want to do it, crazy as that sounds. Yeah, I'm worried and nervous and all the rest, but I really want to do this. For me. For my fiancé. For Crisis.

Post-run selfie.

All I need to do is keep going.

How to start running

A couple of people have asked me (in whispered voices from under the shade of dark alleyways, well out of earshot of anyone else) how they could get into running as well. I haven't thought of running as a strange, confusing hobby since first stepping out into the bright May sunshine six months ago, so in this post, I want to talk about how you too can learn to lace up your trainers and start pounding the tarmac - or the treadmill. Where and how you train is up to you!

And you don't have to run alone, either!

It might sound weird, but the best way to get into running is simply to get out there and go. Don't make a big deal out of it - don't tell yourself that you'll start on Monday or something similar, because that will make it 'feel' like a bigger, more daunting task than it really is. Telling yourself you'll do it eventually is one way to ensure that you never get around to it.


An even better way to begin is to talk more short walks in the day. Instead of taking that quick five minute drive to the shops and back, why not walk there instead? You'll get twenty to thirty minutes of good, active movement and slowly build up your body's tolerance for exercise and exertion.


If you have an hour-long lunch break while at work, take a short stroll. I walk two laps of the estate every lunchtime. It's easy, gentle, and helps me to keep working toward my fitness goals (as vague and constantly-shifting as they are...) Plus, if you're one of the many people who wear fitness trackers and always strive to walk ten thousand steps in a day, forty minutes of walking will see you reach at least half of that. You can't lose. Walking is a good way to start. Plus, it'll help your legs prepare for the real exercise later on.


While you don't need any special equipment to start walking (besides something on your feet), you might want to consider investing in some decent shoes if repetitive running is the end goal. I'd recommend a pair of actual running shoes with good, thick soles and plenty of padding in the heel. Yes, they can be a little more expensive than regular trainers, but believe me, your feet will thank you!


Don't rush out and buy loads of expensive gear before you've started running. Start with good footwear and build up from there. You'll figure out what you need and what suits your style of running. I run with a good shirt (to avoid the cursed nipple chafe), loose shorts with zip-up pockets, sweat bands, and a bottle of water. Sometimes I wear a phone strap on my arm, it depends on which pair of earphones I'm wearing. But I assembled all this slowly, over time, after deciding what helped me and what didn't.


In order to begin running, I used a simple phone app, available for free on any phone store, Couch to 5K:

Just search in the store page

I've mentioned this one before a few times (and still haven't received any royalties, hint, hint) but it really is as good and simple as it seems. It's simple to use and user-friendly and definitely helped encourage me to improve my cardio stamina. In just nine weeks, I went from couch potato to running thirty straight minutes. Now I'm running for almost two hours.

If these pointers were useful, please let me know! Running is one of those challenges that seems really daunting, until you give it a try for yourself. After the first week, you'll be amazed at your progress, I promise.

Work on the core!

In addition to the usual running and attempting to train my legs, I'm also working on strengthening my core. This parts isn't too tricky - before picking up running, I had a fairly intense HIIT schedule that revolved around completing one hundred press-ups, squats, dumbbell lifts, etc.


At the moment, my aim is to run 2-3 times a week (as my work pattern allows), and complete a core workout on the alternative days. Weekends off - again, where possible. This is my current core program:

That works up a pretty good sweat. Throw in some dumbbell exercises using my incline bench, and that winds up to a pretty solid fifteen minutes or so. Even this small amount has helped enormously - my core is strong enough to run eleven miles, without leaving that horrible dull ache afterward.


I've now added a new part to the end of my workout:

HOW DO THEY DO IT? My core is pretty good, but I can't stay balanced! Even time my leg comes up, my head goes down. I try to keep pace with the girl in the white top, but I can't. They look majestic and energetic. I probably resemble a beached whale being electrocuted.

One less hero

Almost everyone who knows me knows that I am a massive nerd. I'm writing this at my desk, beneath a huge portrait of several iconic Marvel Comics characters. On my left is a Captain America mask. On the wall behind me is the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe collection on blu-ray, arranged in my preferred viewing order. To my right is large, loud, moving action figure of Rocket Raccoon who fires his blaster rifle when you flip the switch. Yeah, I'm a massive nerd and I love it. Some people ask me how I can still enjoy comics and superhero movies in my thirties. The answer to that question is this guy right here:

December 28, 1922 - November 12, 2018

Stan Lee. Even if you don't know who he is or what he did, you recognise his face. He's appeared in almost every Marvel movie and TV show in some capacity, and the audience always reacts loudest to him. Hell, his cameos are sometimes better than the rest of the movie (see The Amazing Spider-Man) and his positive, infectious charm and energy always radiate off the screen.

But today, Stan Lee has died. This man had a huge hand in revolutionising the entire comic book industry - a movement that is just now reaching the movie industry, too. He created, co-created, or had a direct hand in influencing scores of characters known and beloved around the world. Spider-Man. The Fantastic Four. The Incredible Hulk. The X-Men. Literally dozens of characters both big and small, well-known and not so popular. He invested them with charm, personality and humanity.

I'm not usually the type to care about the passing of somebody famous, but Stan's work had a genuine impact on my life. He made me believe in heroes. Not superheroes, but heroes.

The reason I've always preferred Marvel to DC is because Stan Lee chose to set his comics in the real world. While DC's characters inhabited fictional settings (Metropolis, Gotham, Bludhaven, Star City, etc.), Marvel heroes lived in real locations. Spider-Man slung his webs in New York. The X-Men battled Magneto on the White House lawn. Luke Cage defended Harlem. The characters existed in a recognisable and believable world - our world. But they had one thing that the rest of us didn't:

Courage.

Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man because of his superpowers. Peter Parker is Spider-Man because he chose to use those powers to make a difference. Reed Richards chose to use his unwanted abilities to make the world a better place. The X-Men swore to defend the human race, even though they were hated and feared by almost everyone they saved. But they persevered. All of them. They fought on because it was the right thing to do, no matter how hard or impossible it seemed.

I would not be doing this without Stan Lee's influence in my life. I would never consider running a marathon - far less to run it for charity - without Stan Lee showing me that people like that do exist. People who do impossible things every day. People who give their all for the sake of helping others. People who push themselves to the limit to change the world.

I'm not comparing myself to the characters he created (I'm not selfless, heroic, courageous or brave in any sense), but I try to emulate the examples he laid out. I try to be better because it's possible. I've seen it. I believe in it.

You know what shirt I wore to the gym a few days ago? It was this one:

No walls were crawled in the making of this picture.

I wore it because I needed to feel more encouragement. I needed some extra strength to face the treadmill and do what had to be done. I couldn't face it alone, so I wore the emblem of the bravest character who ever existed in all of fiction. Stan Lee taught me that heroes do exist. And their real superpower is inspiring others.

The greatest sentence in comic book history.

Excelsior. Thank you, Stan.

Pain and pushing through

Eleven miles is a long damned way to run and my body - wobbly bits and all - is not equipped to handle that kind of distance. But I persevered with my run last Saturday and hit a new personal best. I wanted to see if it was possible to go further than my previous best of ten miles, and I'm delighted with the result.

Eleven laps on the inside circuit - half a marathon in two hours is within reach!

The further I run, the more new pains and aches my body starts to experience. These aren't the usual muscular aches, like back when I first started and my legs protested at being used so vigorously. These are uncomfortable new irritations and agonies I've never experienced before. For instance, after around four miles my feet start to tingle. It feels like pins and needles in the soles of my feet. This sensation doesn't travel any higher than my ankles, and fades away after the fifth mile or so - thankfully! - but it's really distracting while it lasts. Maybe I need better footwear.


After that, there's pain in the lungs from trying to take even, deep, steady breaths under such strenuous circumstances. Breathing, I've learned, is the key to almost every exercise and controlling your lungs is a vital part of running long distance. You don't want to start gasping or hyperventilating. Bad enough you hear yourself wheezing like a squashed otter in the silence between songs, no need to make that awkwardness any worse.


And don't forget about losing all sensation in your fingertips! At the beginning of the run, my hands were too hot. I cussed myself for not wearing the fingerless gloves instead, but persevered anyway. After the hallway point, I lost most of the feeling in my fingers. By the end, it hurt to unclench my fists. And my fingers were freezing. Still not sure what the cause was - the falling temperature; the wind resistance; or aliens.

Any excuse to post this image.

Surprisingly, I don't get pain in the one place you might expect me to feel it. My leg muscles were actually fine. Once you're going and locked into a good pace, it's really hard to stop. Your legs keep moving almost on their own accord. I let myself slow to a fast walk around three or four times while running those laps. It didn't seem to have any negative impacts on me (apart from protests in my thigh muscles when trying to get started again).


The thing that shocked me was the way my body trembled all over once I had finished. After I had stretched and had a protein shake and the adrenaline had worn off, my entire body started to shake and tremble uncontrollably. It was like climbing out of an icy lake and standing on the shore in a freezing wind. My fingers shook. Teeth chattered. It was a bizarre feeling. I wasn't cold, but I couldn't stop. That must be what exhaustion feels like.


The more running I do, the better I feel. It's a strange parallel. When I first started, my legs would barely hold while showering afterward. Now I can run eleven miles, stretch out the cramps, and be surprised by the full-body shuddering I experience later. I'm getting a little better at this, day by day.

All aboard the dreadmill

I've had the chance to log a couple of runs on a treadmill now and I feel there's enough to warrant talking about the major differences between training at the gym and training outside. Plus, I forgot to put up a post yesterday and need to make up for that (sorry). Can't be helped - it was my day off and there was a list of things to do that was longer than my arm. But I managed my first run of the week!


The biggest difference between treadmill and outdoor running is that the treadmill is easier. A lot easier. It moves by itself, unlike the road, keeping you at a pretty consistent pace. In order to simulate the road a little better, I set the incline up a notch or two, just to add more difficulty.


Another thing I've noticed is that it's a hell of a lot warmer in the gym. Outside, in the current weather, I'm able to hit double figures on a single water bottle. In the gym, I'm dripping with sweat like it's the middle of summer all over again. There's a fan on the machine designed to blow cold air into your face, but it only aims as high as your chest and is about as powerful as someone huffing vaguely toward you.


I've spoken about this before, but it's still true - running on a treadmill is so bloody boring compared to being out on the road. Staring at a wall is the most mind-numbing activity imaginable. Your brain wanders all over the place and you end up not really concentrating on what you're doing - not in the good way, either. How many times have I almost tripped over my own feet on the treadmill? Too many damn times. Sure, there are a few TVs playing music videos, but the songs are atrocious (modern pop/ dance anyone? Anyone?) and I'm fairly certain the music playing over the speakers is entirely different to the one displayed onscreen.

Almost seven miles in just over an hours is still pretty good, right?

And the thing I hate the most about the treadmill is that you can only run for one freaking hour at a time. After that, you get a five minute 'cool down', before the machine turns itself off for thirty seconds. This is so bloody irritating. It totally throws me off my stride - figuratively and literally. After you've been brought to a screeching halt, it's so difficult to get going again and build that precious pace back up. The challenge then becomes trying to get as much distance behind you as possible within this absurd sixty five minute window. Not ideal for training.


Imagine that happening with any other piece of equipment in the gym. The dumbbells suddenly become lighter than air after ten reps. The squat bench folds up when you've 'done enough'. The personal trainers prevent you from doing any more press-ups. Whoa, there buddy! That's plenty for today, doncha think? Imagine running the marathon and buggering off after an hour because that's all you were allowed to train. Yes, I know you can start the machine up again, but after you come to a halt, there's no drive to start to back up again. It's not like coming to a halt at the road to let a car through, it's an end to the session.


It's not all bad, though. There is one thing the treadmill does really well - even better than running outdoors. Pace. On a treadmill, you set the speed and try to keep up. You can't do this on your own. Once you start to flag and slow down, that's it, you're done. It's really hard to claw that time and pace and energy back. On a treadmill, there's no choice. You keep going (well, you can lower the speed, but there's always a voice in the back of your head telling that only a wimp would do that).


Despite all these differences, there are a lot of similarities between indoor and outdoor training. You're still running. Still improving. Still using the same muscle groups. Still driving yourself onward. At the end of the day, as long as I'm running, I'm happy.

Rising frustration

When you start exercising regularly, your body starts to feel more and more energised with every day that passes. This is fantastic if you keep exercising, but a bloody nightmare when things go wrong and you can't get out there and burn off that excess energy.


So far this week, I haven't managed to do anything even vaguely athletic - both my own fault and due to events far beyond my control. I'm desperate to get out there and bloody run, but everything seems to be against me. It's frustrating and I hate feeling like this - pent up and full of energy.

I've been up late almost every day this week, unable to sleep or shut down at the end of the day. I need to get out there and train or hit the gym and get some miles behind me. I hate this feeling of being coiled up and squeezed into a box. Luckily, I'm off work tomorrow and hoping to get something done, though I'm not sure yet exactly what. My aim for this week was to hit eleven miles, but that's looking further and further out of reach.

'Don't you get bored?'

Not really. My mind is usually fixed on what I'm doing. I try to imagine what it will be like to run through London, flanked by metal barriers and crowds and hundreds of other runners. I keep telling myself to keep going and not give up. When I start to flag, I grit my teeth and mutter, Come on, under my breath.


I used to listen to audiobooks, back when I first started. They're a nice distraction, a pleasant way to occupy the mind for a few hours. Now that I'm running so long and so far, I need something with a bit more oomph to it. My current playlist is comprised entirely of Iron Maiden's studio albums. 155 tracks. 16 albums. 15 hours. Stick it on shuffle and run!

Run like Eddie is on your heels.

Sometimes the music lines up pretty well and I find myself gunning it to some stone-cold classics. Racing alongside 'Flight of Icarus'. Pounding pavement to 'Charlotte the Harlot'. Trying to run a lap before 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' ends. Getting a second wind just as 'Sign of the Cross' explodes into high gear. And - if I'm really, really lucky - hitting my stride while 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' soars all around me.


No, I don't get bored. There are too many things to think about and too many songs playing to get the chance. It's different in the gym. Much easier to lose your mind and trip over your own feet while staring at a boring, featureless wall. Running outside is a lot better for that.

Double digits!

For the first time in my life, I ran more than ten miles in one go. No slowing down, no stopping, not even a cursory faint at the end. What an amazing achievement for a lazy bugger like me. Couldn't even run a full minute five months ago, now I'm half freaking way to being as trained as possible for the biggest and most recognisable marathon in England.

It was a good journey. Started out cold, but after one mile I couldn't even feel the chill. My running tights were perfect for the single-digit evening weather. My feet started to go numb around the four mile mark, sending strange little pins-and-needles ripples through my calves. I guess I'm not used to running on hard surfaces. Around seven miles, colours started to blur - streetlights and car taillights looked less stationary and more like comets leaving glittering trails through the dark. Everything started to hurt about eight miles in, but I never stopped. I never slowed down. The first five miles were all sub-nine minute laps: my fastest time ever. Couldn't seem to slow down, no matter how many times I tried. My legs were moving and carrying me onward.


I even had someone cheering me on. There was some kind of event taking place at the church just off the leftmost curve of the loop in the picture above, so a security guard stood on the main road, directing cars inside. After lap two, we started to shout encouragement to one another. Well, I was shouting encouragement to him. Couldn't hear his voice over my music. I assume he was spurring me on - he might have been yelling insults or threats, but his smile was friendly. That was a curious little taste of what it might be like on the day. Total strangers standing to the side and yelling at me to run faster, even though my lungs are trying to climb up my throat.


The knowledge that I hit such a lofty target kept me in good spirits all weekend. I toasted marshmallows over a fire (and was utterly disgusted at how much mess they made), safe in the knowledge that I can consume those additional calories. I earned the right to absorb a little more extra sugary goodness.


I've decided that running the work loop is probably the best way to train at the moment - easier for me to build into my days, a good length, and exactly the kind of terrain my body needs to get used to running over. As a strange side note, my 10-mile run took place on the outside loop of the business park. I learned on Saturday that the inside pavement is exactly one mile, so the next run will take place on that loop instead. Let's find out if I can run eleven miles!

Staying positive

Sometimes it's really hard to stay engaged and happy and excited about running. My runs aren't brief, enjoyable thirty minute jaunts anymore, they're epic slogs of around an hour and a half each. Fitting them into my day is becoming more and more challenging, too. Sometimes I finish work with bundles of energy, but that enthusiasm is long gone by the time I get home. Last night, for instance, traffic was so bad it took over an hour and a half to get back. The irony is that I could have run home from work in that time.


Today, I've brought my running gear to work with me. My plan is to do laps of the park before heading home. That way, I hope to keep all my energy together and unleash it the right way. Not by yelling in passive-aggressive frustration at people chopping and changing lanes on the M4. That's the idea, anyway. Will it work? Will I get slowed down repeatedly by all the traffic fighting to leave Aztec West at five o'clock today? Probably. More than likely, actually. But I'm going to do it. My run on the treadmill was strange and not as enjoyable as I'd hoped. I want to keep running on the roads - it's better practice, more enjoyable for pacing myself, and much less boring than staring at the gym's off-white eggshell colour wall.


I'm trying to stay positive and upbeat. It's becoming slowly more difficult. Maybe it's the oncoming winter - human beings are genetically programmed to withdraw during the winter months to preserve energy - or maybe it's because I'm naturally cynical and pessimistic. There's a voice in my head telling me that I'll never do this. Give up, it says. Why bother? I have to try and push that voice aside. I want to do this. I want to prove to myself that I can do this - anyone can run a marathon, my fat arse included.


Even if I don't want to do it, I'm going to run. Once I start, the rest becomes easy. All I've got to do is begin. It sounds so easy when I put it that way.

Halloween Fun-draising

It's Halloween! Time to get spooky. In our office, that meant dressing up in costumes and selling cakes in the kitchen. Here's a few pictures from the day. Who said getting sponsorship had to be boring?

I chose to dress as Daredevil, the Man Without Fear - appropriate, given that I'm bricking it about the Marathon.