Very impressive stuff. Wonder what you'd have done if you'd started 35 years earlier. What line of work or past-times were you in before (cycling?).

I'd hope you'd agree though, that yours is a pretty exceptional and unorthodox approach. And I see you used 10km road races as 'sharpeners'.
Better marathon runners than I used to emphasise the need to train for a fast 10 mile road time to carry over into the marathon.

Funnily enough I hit my peak betwen 1984 and 1992, so we probably crossed paths somewhere.