We are delighted to announce that the responsibility for running the 2010 London Marathon representing BOSPA has been awarded to Jerome Timbrell. Jerome has had a gastric bypass and has the honour of being the first BOSPA member to run this prestigious race, and raise money for a very worthy cause at the same time.
Please donate to support Jerome's efforts - we wish to raise at least £2,000 though his sponsorship and we attach a sponsorship form for your use. Please return this to Keith Chinn - somerset@BOSPA.org. Alternatively, you can donate directly on Jerome's Just Giving page -- www.justgiving.com/Jerome-Timbrell Just Giving is simple to use and help us spread the word far and wide. The responsibility to raise as much money as possible is not Jerome's alone - and doing so will benefit all weigh loss surgery patients.
Here's Jerome's lateste report on his training for this event. (18th Feb 2010)
I found out that I had secured the place running for BOSPA on 15th November 2009 and at the time I was running about 2 miles on an irregular basis and would often stop to rest/walk. Being told I had the place in the marathon and being 6 months out from the race I knew I would have to train hard to increase my mileage to be capable of running 26 miles. Especially where my sister had run it for The Anthony Nolan trust in 2008 I knew that I would be looking to complete it in less than the 6.5 hours she had taken !
First things first, new trainers all the advice on long distance running says get the trainers right otherwise you are asking for injuries. So up to Bristol I went and after 2 hours, 13 pairs of shoes where I had to run up and down the road and £80, I procured a pair of Brookes trainers. They are safe stable heavy (very heavy) trainers, more on these later ! In the remainder of November and December I concentrated on upping the mileage and not particularly worrying about the speed. By the end of November I was comfortably able to run the 2.7 mileage “block” around our house, we don’t have that big a house ! It is the local run connecting four lanes. Unfortunately, on the first week of December encouraged by my ability to cover 2.7 miles without stopping I inadvisedly started a run without planning how far I was going to go (it’s the sort of thing I like to do !) but ended up on a route which took me over eight miles, seven of which I ran and the final mile I walked in a great deal of pain as I had over done it. The injury I sustain because of my over ambition meant the I struggled to walk for a week but that I was unable to run for a fortnight. A lesson was taught and I have learnt from.
The beauty of the Christmas break is I am able to run throughout the day without the pressures of work. I ran a lot over Christmas and was comfortably able to manage 5 miles without significant pain. At the start of January I went to the South Devon group to talk about the marathon, this was my first time talking about my weight journey and they were incredibly supportive. Unfortunately, after this meeting the snow started and stayed! As the owner of a safety company I couldn’t justify running in the snow and ice so I bought a turbo trainer which is basically a addition to a standard bike that allows you to ride your bike at home. This way I could work on increasing my fitness rather than my mileage. I couldn’t run on the roads for the fortnight but managed to keep my mileage up.
My plan was that by the end of January I could manage to run eight miles without problem. I did a local run on the last week of January where I managed 8.5 miles, what surprised me the most about doing this was my leg did not hurt, unlike my big run in December. On the 6th February I went to London to a virgin London marathon preparation session this was a really useful thing to do as I started a conversation with the Lucozade sport scientist’s about how a gastric by pass patient should run a marathon, they have gave me some advice but most of it is trial and error when it comes to how to manage the my glucose intake. I continued to try and add a mile a week as per my training plan and on the 7th February I managed to run 13.1 miles (a half marathon) in 1 hour 58 minutes, which bodes really well for the marathon. My plan in going forward is to continue to add the mileage week by week but to acknowledge that the snow in January has done me favours as it has slowed me down and forced me to concentrate on mileage rather than speed. Therefore by the end of February I would like to be able to run 16 miles on my Sunday long run.
For general BOSPA fundraising information or assistance please contact Keith Chinn - somerset@BOSPA.org