- Auditel Consultant:
- Carl Windsor
Some Personal History
01 Oct 2010 | Filed under: personalBackground Waffle…..
Two main reasons for deciding to run the Italian marathon was that it gave Ken and I the opportunity to combine a European driving holiday with a visit to the home of Italian exotica; Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Zonda, something we’ve always wanted to do.
This is the 23rd Italian marathon and is a memorial marathon to the late, great, Enzo Ferrari (founder of Ferrari – apparently he was an athlete before becoming a motor racing legend) see link below.
Approximately 3,000 runners are expected to start the 42.195 kilometre (26 miles and 385 yard) road race on 10 October 2010 heading out from Maranello through Modena finishing in Carpi.
Our running started out a few years ago in a very gentle format after we met playing Squash and decided to do something a little different. We began with 5 and 10k events raising funds for local and national charities before moving on to stretch ourselves with ½ marathons. We never expected or intended to do a full marathon ever but last year we completed our first and very eventful marathon in Edinburgh on my 50th birthday. I say eventful as the sun beat down at 20/30 degrees and the organisers ran out of water at the 12, 15 and 18 mile markers – runners were dropping like flies. It was later reported in the press and on the internet that the stocks at these points had been stolen…..
The Italian Job gives us the opportunity to improve on the time we did in Edinburgh which was hardly representative due to the conditions although we aren’t particularly runners per se we thought we could achieve a time under 4 ½ hours.
Training is pretty demanding especially in the three to six weeks before the event where we will be covering 40 to 50 miles per week. Over the 18 week programme we will cover about 450 miles. If you take a look at my blog page there is a very poor attempt at recording my training. Diet consists of lots of healthy foods; fish, chicken, vegetables, potato, pasta, etc and lots of Chinese, Indian and traditional English meals out when we ‘fall off the wagon’ which we frequently do!! Especially at networking events. We are always ‘fighting the flab’ hence the names Fats and Lardy or Tubby and Chunk alias Tinky Winky (Ken) and Laa Laa (me)
We have a superb support crew which consists of Bill (Dipsy) and Rick (Po). Bill and his dog, Maisie (no not his wife – she’s called Fiona) runs round the village with us, although he uses his bike when the distance increases much above 6 miles ‘cos he really is fat – works for the Council – go figure 
. Fiona (that’s Bill’s wife – hard to tell the difference in some lights) runs with us sometimes and between them they aren’t bad as coaches I have to say. My wife Bev and Ken’s wife Lynne do most of the support stuff and are pretty handy to have around. Rick (Ken and Lynne’s son) usually runs some of the shorter 10k events that we do although he is taking a bit of a back seat as he and his wife Rachel have recently had a baby, Jamie.
Follow Carl and Ken on their road trip and the Italian Marathon on Twitter at http://twitter.com.carlwindsor.
For further information and to donate, please either visit their Just Giving page, or email Carl on carl.windsor@auditel.co.uk. For information on the Neuroblastoma Society, please visit www.neuroblastoma.org.uk.
