A big hi there to everyone reading;  Corporal  Lloyd ‘Crazy’ Fenner reporting for duty, I’ve actually stolen the blog from Toddy, as today was my special challenge day.

                Bad news I’m afraid, I failed my task of running a Marathon in 3hrs 30 minutes.  It took me 3hrs and 38 minutes to complete the 26.2 miles, and as marines we really don’t take failure too well.

                So my sincere apologies to our beloved Corps, 3hrs 30mins was meant to be my gift to you for your birthday.  For those who don’t know the 28^th October 1664 is the date upon which the Royal Marines was formed.

                The truth is that I have a new found respect for all the marathon runners out there and in particular, those who run the distance in under 3hrs.  Actually, today was my first ever road marathon, and although the final Commando test we complete as Royal Marines is 30 miles across Dartmoor with full kit; running 26.2 miles as a best effort is a different beast completely.  Everyone talks about a ‘different  kind of fitness’.  Well today, I experienced that first hand.

Now for the excuses!!!!! In my defence it was actually 95 degrees fahrenheit, in short it was pretty hot, and I don’t think the 1500 miles we have run over the last 4 weeks really helped that much  in preparation either!!! Ha Ha excuses excuses!!!.

In all seriousness, I was very surprised how difficult I found miles 21 to 24, I can’t really remember too much, only that I was all over the road and it genuinely didn’t feel very nice, anyway I came back around for the last 2.2 miles and did manage a sprint finish.

I have learnt a valuable lesson really, being able to run 13.1 miles in 1hr 20mins has very little bearing on the full 26.2 miles, you live and learn.

I will obviously be reattempting this challenge at some in future, with more specific marathon training and maybe when it is a little cooler.

Once again sorry for letting you all down and in the words of Arnie I WILL BE BACK!!!.

Last thing a huge shout out and happy Birthday to my gorgeous girl Caroline 28 years young today, sorry I’ve missed another birthday but at least this time it is for a worthy cause.

Time to say goodbye, hopefully you’ll all be back to read future blogs and follow our progress all the way to Santa Monica.

All the Best

Cpl Lloyd ‘Crazy’ Fenner