This is proving to be quite interesting
I hated all sport at school...I was the chubby one who never got picked for teams and was useless at everything else.
I first started running when I was about 18, don't really know why, it was a fitness thing I suppose. Shortly after I watched the first ever London Marathon and it caught my imagination. The following year I took part in the 2nd London marathon. I then spent the next 7 or 8 years running obsessively at all times of day and night...it wasn't unusual for me to go out on a 20 mile run at 10pm! I ran 12 marathons in those years, 5 of which were London.
Consequently I burnt out and at the age of 27 I hung up my trainers for good...or so I thought.
Then at the age of 38ish I had a bit of a mid-life crisis and started running again...just to get fit.
Before long I was training for the Bristol half...and then something sparked in me and before I knew what what going on I'd joined a club, was running marathons again, then ultras and racing regularly.
It's been really tough being injured since April 2006 and although this year has proved that I can be quite successful at shorter distances, I am a long distance runner at heart, and as I see the weeks, months and years slipping away unable to train like I need to, and run distances that I want to, I'm wondering how long I have left when it comes to improvement and setting new PBs.
So, setting up this thread poll was also for selfish reasons...trying to give myself some hope, but it's also interesting to see people's motivations and how they've got to this point in their running
