Posts Tagged london marathon

London marathon this weekend so I will be lending my annual support to the runners and friends that I know are running. If you are running, please let me know so I can give you a cheer as well.

Once again my feet will be itching to shuffle around the 26.2 mile course, but once again I will not be able too. My right Achilles has responded well to a new training regime, which I was hopeful would allow me to run again. Unfortunately I have now gone and torn my left Achilles and face another long period out to allow that to recover. It’s unbelievable really, but it just seems that I am very prone to injuries. I had my legs looked at again after this injury and the long and short of it is that the muscles on my legs are very toned, no doubt from all that running when I was younger, but that tone is now my nemesis as if I don’t warm up properly it’s easy to pull something. This time I did it while playing on the Wii with the kids for goodness sake! That shows you how fragile things have become.

Still, onwards and upwards. I am determined to get back running so I can at least enjoy one more moment of glory with my children before I ‘retire’ properly. Good luck if you are running this weekend.

Half way if my memory serves me correctly

Never one to miss an opportunity to bet or analyse a sporting event, four years ago I was watching the London marathon with my laptop beside me recording and betting on the event. Being a former marathon runner I knew that front running a long distance race was a mighty task and I thought that maybe after her Athen’s exploits this race could determine how Paula Radcliffes running career went from here. I expected her to front run but expected at some point that the odds may come back once she hit the front.

Her starting odds were 1.38 and as the race got underway she hit the front and looked strong showing no signs of obvious distress. It should be said though that with Paula this is somewhat difficult to spot thanks to her unorthodox nodding donkey running style. One hour into the race her odds had dropped significantly as her competitors struggled to keep up and she was now available to back at 1.14. The odds were coming in quite quickly and she hadn’t even reached half way! I felt it would be worth laying some money at short odds. One hour and forty five minutes into the race she was trading a 1.01 to back. At these odds your downside was £10 and your potential upside, if she failed to win was £1000. You would place this bet in the hope that she would tire or something unusual would happen such as a strong contender emerging from the field forcing the odds back out. Barely five minutes later things began to happen. First the odds moved out to 1.02, then fifty seconds later 1.03, fifteen seconds later 1.04. I kept looking at the TV to figure if I was missing something then suddenly Paula stopped.

The exchange market went crazy and the commentators couldn’t quite grasp what was happening. The market reacted quickly and people started exiting their positions in panic. Thirty seconds after I pondered what was happening her price on the exchanges had rocketed out to 1.50. As quickly as it hit that height it sunk back when people realised that this wasn’t an athlete breaking down mid race more a ‘stopover’.

Which just goes to show that when some body advises you to lay low you should not keep out of the public spotlight for a while you should get onto an exchange and offer up lots of money at very short odds!