Somewhat late, since I have had pictures on my facebook profile for months, but I thought I should add a post about my experiences at the London Triathlon in August 2008. This was the second of three major endurance events I completed in 2008, the others being the Blenheim Triathlon and the New York Marathon, in aid of Epilepsy Research UK. I would like to thank everyone who generously sponsored me for those events, your donations have since been passed on to the charity and will be put towards improving the quality of life for eplieptics who suffer from more severe symptoms than my own.
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On 27th September 2008 I and three friends took part in the Hearts First Bike Ride from Oxford to Cambridge in aid of the British Heart Foundation.

My friends stayed in Oxford overnight and probably started the day with a hearty breakfast. Unfortunately I had to make the start in Cambridge resulting in a 6.00am coach ride from Cambridge, a coach ride I almost missed due to a faulty alarm clock. One coffee cup and a muffin is no way to start a 90 mile bike ride ( or 86.78 according to my GPS ). I completed the ride in just shy of 5 hours, which admittedly is not that great but I use the excuse that it wasn’t a race and I had no one to draft.
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On November 2nd I ran my first marathon. It remains to be seen if I will run another, but at least I’ll have done New York. It really is the most awesome experience, the weather was just about perfect and the crowds from start to finish were incredible.

I took a package with Sports Tours International so everything was bought and paid for. Not only was this my first marathon but it was also my first trip to NYC ( If I’m going to see the city, I may as well see 26 miles of it… ) so I didn’t want to have to worry about transfers and getting from A to B, but in the end I doubt this would have been much of a problem.

Unfortunately the route information is missing from the map below, but this link should show it accurately. Alternatively, you can download the kml file directly for Google Earth.

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The previous incarnation of this site was described by former colleague Rob Morse as being too “geeky”, as most of the content consisted of material for my Open University maths courses. So, to mitigate the inevitable geekification of PlanetMarshall, the first post of the new site will be detailing my efforts at the 2008 Blenheim Triathlon. Just to prove that you do not need to be an obese agoraphobe with a penchant for burgers and comics featuring half naked girls riding dragons to be a computer programmer.

On the 8th of June 2008 I took part in my first Triathlon, consisting of a 750m open water swim, a 20km cycle and a 5k run – a distance that is amusingly known as a “Sprint”.

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