Finding time

Time for… (Photo credit: Szczur)

Until I win the lottery, I’m stuck with a day job. I also have a lovely wife and a young family (7yo and 5yo). So things are a little difficult in terms of fitting in family time, work and (ultra) running.

It really is a juggling act, and there is a fine line you have to balance in order to meet the demands of the first two to reward yourself with time in the last one.

Anyway, to that end, the only place I can really ‘steal’ time from is sleep. So I’ll often be found getting up at 5am, to get a long run to work in, or getting up early at the weekend while everyone else is still sparko.

Occasionally, I’ll get a ‘free’ day (or morning) at the weekend that let’s me get up at a reasonable time and still get a good long run in. For example I had a free morning this past Saturday, I still got up at 6am, took the train to Marlow (90 minutes all in) and then ran back to Reading, jumped on a train and got home for 12:30ish.

So, my biggest piece of advice to anyone taking up running, regardless of whether it is “couch to 10K”, marathon or ultras is : “Where will you find the time from ?”

Where do you find the time from ?