threads...

As part of the package for being selected as one of the official bloggers of the London Marathon,  I received a few freebies.  A few weeks ago, I was the lucky recipient of a pile of Lucozade nutritional stuff (jelly beans, drinks, protein bars etc.  Then, this weekend, the postman brought me a substantial parcel containing a whole pile of green accented, London Marathon branded adidas training gear and a pair of Ultra Boost ST trainers.  The trainers alone are worth £130, but apparently the rest of the gear (long-sleeved top, short-sleeved top, running tights and shorts) are also from towards the top-end of the adidas range.

...not that any of this particularly matters.  I would have written them blogs for nothing.  After all, I've been doing that here for more than a decade.

Still, if they want a few blogs in return for all this clobber, then I'm more than happy to oblige.  Here's what they say in the introduction piece on their website for this year's official bloggers:

"Meet the runners who will be sharing their training journey to the start line on Sunday 24 April in a regular blog. Follow their journeys as they complete their training and look ahead to race day as they each plot their course to hitting their goals in London! From the high of a new training PB to the low of a missed run due to illness or injury, training for a marathon is never easy, but it’s immensely rewarding, so don’t forget to support and follow our runners every step of the way".

Nice.  Except that they've only asked for one blog so far, which they put up a couple of weeks ago.  There are twenty days left until we line up at the start on Blackheath Common.... so exactly how much of my journey are people expecting to read?  Come to think of it, with all my longest training runs now done, how much are they realistically hoping that I will talk about all this lovely training gear they've sent me?  It's not as though I'm going to wear a completely brand new set of trainers now, is it?  In fact, I'm going to be wearing exactly none of this kit for the actual marathon itself.  I'm not a complete idiot.  Apart from anything else, I look like an especially ugly adidas catalogue model.

Well, what do I care?  I've got the kit now, right?

...except that I'm a blogger: the idea of writing the same shit that you good people have been reading here for years to a potentially completely different audience and passing it off as brand new work is an attractive proposition.  Surely you can understand that?  If you're lucky, I'll then republish the stuff from there on here, so you can enjoy the recycled drivel all over again.

It's win:win, as far as I can see.