I have even more respect for those that finished the London Marathon in three hours

Like many other people I enjoyed watching the highlights on the London Marathon @ the weekend. The furthest I've ever run is five miles so I am impressed full stop when anyone finishes a marathon @ all let alone in three hours. I have signed up for the London Parks half marathon in October and have no idea how I'm going to manage to run the whole way.

In an effort to reduce my personal carbon emissions I tried cycling from and to work yesterday and this morning. By coincidence it's a journey of thirteen miles each way - a 1/2 marathon! I hadn't ridden any distance in fifteen years. I bought a road bike at the weekend (pictured below) and took it to work yesterday by car leaving a change of clothes et al in it to wear today. I cycled home and I must say it was fairly hard work. I woke early this morning to make the time to cycle back to the office and still make my 9:30am meeting. I found the journey more difficult on the return leg as I clearly hadn't recovered from last night's outbound journey.

I know that thirteen miles is no distance for any self respecting cyclist - for me it's a long way!

The reason I have even more respect for those that finished the London Marathon in under three hours is that's how long the return trip took me on a racing bike!!! Goodness knows how I'm going to run a half marathon but this is a start at least and I have time to improve my fitness in the meantime.

BTW: I bought "last year's" model from my local bike store - nothing fancy - reduced from £225 to £150 - it weighs a fraction of the bike I rode as a teenage - hardly surprising as this one had an aluminium frame and my previous one was made of steel!