Modest Bridgestone Account Manager completes New York Marathon

Peter Dickson, Key Account Manager with Bridgestone Ireland, successfully completed the New York Marathon recently in the extremely impressive time of 4 hours and 43 minutes!  Writing about his experience in his excellent blog –   http://www.action.org.uk/blog/2013/09/23/nyc_marathon_action_training_blog  Peter modestly asks if this was a ‘Success or Failure?’!

This was Peter’s second New York Marathon and he ran for Action Medical Research for Children.  On Sunday 3rd November, he joined 45,000 other runners pounding the streets of the Big Apple!

Peter’s blog charts the highs and lows of the day – the latter included getting less sleep than he would have liked, the taxi driver getting lost, the three and a half hour wait once he got through security until the start of the race, the first few miles weaving in and out of slower runners, the dips in energy at various stages, the lonely parts of the race where no spectators are allowed, other runners passing him at miles 22,23 and 24 and his inability at one point to get to a drinks station.

The highs were the encouragement of spectators in Queens and Manhattan, reading messages of encouragement on his mobile phone while he ran, completing the race, getting his medal and his photo – and, oh yes, the fact that he bettered his previous time in 2009!  No mean achievement!

Peter’s ‘failure’ in his own mind was that he set himself a target of 4 hours 30 minutes.  So he terms the race both a success and a failure for him personally.  But, as Action Medical Research comment at the end of his blog, “Most definitely success, Peter!  Fantastic achievement and all the Team at Action is very proud and grateful.”  His colleagues at Bridgestone, where he has worked for 18 years, are equally proud and impressed by his achievement.  To date Peter has raised stg. £700 with monies still coming in!

Peter originally applied for the marathon in 2010. “I got in through a lottery system which had up to 120,000 applicants, so I was very lucky this year,” he says.  The week before he jetted out to New York he had a very dry birthday celebration – something that has no doubt been rectified since the Marathon!