It has been over a week now, there is perspective on the day. Things look and feel different given enough time. Monday and Tuesday were spent in lessening degrees of inwardly targeted anger and disappointment but that didn’t last long. Writing the blog piece directly after provided an outlet and a mirror to my thoughts and was very cathartic. I would have never considered blogging through a training block like that before but it proved to be an essential part of the process in the final weeks. I would highly recommend something similar to anyone working through a training block like this. This is why I’ve decided to continue it here, even if no one reads it beyond me and my coach, I will have that echo chamber to show me where I used to be, to know that I didn’t come this far just to get this far.

Putting this blog site together I went back over all of the pieces I’d written to correct the spelling, grammar and the sentence or paragraph structure so it would read how I had intended it to. As I did this I started bullet-pointing what I felt I had learnt from this process.

• Keep believing. I missed three PB attempts at the start of the training block but I wasn’t fully invested or ready. Instead I got a Half Marathon PB when I wasn’t trying on a course I wouldn’t have targeted one.
• Don’t let pains and niggles put you off if they are unlikely to get worse. Well I’m not a physio or a doctor but I think I have an idea of what the different pains feel like to me now. I stated the training block with plantar fasciitis in January which was no fun in training but at some point along the line this disappeared.
• Try not to let cold or wet weather interrupt your fuel and hydration plan. I don’t take enough on at Farnborough and had a bad run in the last few miles then a month later beat that time by 5 minutes sticking to the plan.
• Never book the Richmond Riverside race again!
• Run to a goal pace. Running to feel is great for some of the runs but on race day when you are trying to work out if you’re too fast or too slow it will be useful to have that pace dialled in.
• “Nothing new on race day.” is correct. I used the new Vapourflys on a 10k PB attempt and was not used to them or how soft they would be compared to my other shoes, and the Imodium I took before the marathon for no reason…
• Every run ‘feels’ the same. The body seems to know how far I am about to go and adapts to that distance. Same phantom niggles, same phantom pains, same feeling of exertion during the run.
• If I am racing I do better if it’s a fun run. Each time I race at effort with no goal in mind it is more enjoyable and, as a general rule, I do better.
• There is no such thing as too many buffs.

So, what did the week after the day before look like? I was straight back to work on Monday morning and this was the day I posted the Marathon activity on Strava. I couldn’t face doing it on the Sunday and even considered keeping it posted as ‘private’ so I wouldn’t have to see all the kudos or congratulatory messages. Not something I really wanted to deal with when that was not at all how I was feeling myself. Once the run went up on Strava those comments started coming in and I listlessly jabbed the little heart against each one. I wasn’t in the mood to accept the kudos when I felt the polar opposite. Everything was slowly becoming easier and I was started to accept it all.

Wednesday I was back out running, unusually for me, joining the Wednesday club run. With no one down as run leader I hopped up on to the bench to make the usual announcements along with the important one about the swap of winter to summer sessions and routes. Sticking with Caz, who was tailing the last of the short winter routes I enjoyed a chatty run walk and you know what? I didn’t hate it! This was followed up by another couple of rest days, Friday was meant to be a run but I was so tired from the week at work that when I got home I went straight into nap mode deciding the push the scheduled 5k to Parkrun the next morning. Sunday Jenny had me down for a 60-90 minute run and it just so happened that Runthrough had a 10k race in Regents Park which would probably take me over an hour. 😎

It was a lovely sunny day, perfect for a couple of laps round this beautiful park in North London. A combination of the weather and the reduced load this week had me feeling great physically so I just ran it for fun, enjoying the weather scenery and weaving through the other runners. I didn’t check the watch, I was just doing this for the sheer enjoyment of running, didn’t really care what time I was hitting, had no aim in mind. Probably a little faster than what was suggested in the training plan but I vaguely recalled Jenny saying  something about this week not mattering too much and it being more about recovery, this run was much more about mental recovery than anything to do with my legs.

Speaking of the legs I had not experienced any of the usual knee pains or associated tightness in the chain of muscles in my right leg since my last pre-marathon run. I know there is a physical cause to the pains and discomfort I feel, I’ve seen it on the MRI, but with no issues in the marathon or any runs since does make me contemplate how much of it is actually in my mind. There has also been nothing in the left hamstring that caused me to pull up the weekend before. Happy no lasting damage seems to have been done but again wondering if it was all real. The psychology of this sport really is something I need to look into more.

To help heal the self inflicted mental traumas I practiced some of the most powerful therapy known to man (or woman), retail. I started to compile a check list of what was needed for the next race which, being a little bit longer, has a mandatory kit list. Whoever said running is a cheap sport hadn’t accounted for what happens when you want to run all the races! So now I have some sparkly new trail shoes on the way along with first aid kit, survival blanket, sleeping bag etc. not quite as exciting as new shoes though!

I also went through my diary on Training Peaks, made some small adjustments and left some notes for Jenny for when we look at the next exercise block. While I was sat at the computer doing all this I might as well book onto some races, why not? The Wedding Day 7k sparked that idea with the email landing while I was searching Amazon for the right bits and bobs for June’s race. I missed this last year due to the OA and it cost me a point in the club’s marathon ballot, so I did have unfinished business with this one. First Eagle to sign up, the only race I will win!

The EHM was next. I had been going back and forth between thinking about running it to volunteering and was leaning more to the volunteering as I run the Copenhagen Half the weekend before. A wider view of my goals though made me realise that the Berlin Marathon was likely to be the same weekend, or so close, to the EHM that if I didn’t run it this year it would likely be three years before I have another go at it. So CPH will be a fun run, EHM I will try to get a course PB. Then I went and booked onto the Blackpool HM, a long run along the seafront, for 2024. Another excuse to go and visit family. It’s been the Leeds HM the last two years so it’s time to visit those family members on the west side of the Pennines in ’24.

Finally, a spur of the moment sign up, was the ASICS 10k using the discount code to get it for £10 thanks to John posting the voucher code on Facebook. I had mixed feelings signing up to this as it’s the last race I ran in 2022 before my time off with injury. So, that should be me sorted for a little while. Retail therapy has done its job. Along with the passage of time the raw emotions and irrational thoughts from the marathon have been put to bed. My outlook now is forward, to the training to hand and the next big thing.

So, what is next? Well, in six weeks I will be taking on the Race To The King. There was a big gap between the training block for London and New York so I wanted something to look forward to in the summer and after checking with Jenny that we could fit this in I signed up. Of course I am going to attempt the full distance in one day, why not? I’ve already completed a 55km race so anything less than that wouldn’t feel like a challenge to me. This is all about going out, having fun and enjoying it. It’s two loops out and back so you get to your bag and the start point after the first 50km giving me the option to easily DNF if I am not enjoying it. I also wouldn’t mind if I DNF’d somewhere else out on the course. I’ve not done this yet so there needs to be a first time and it’s something new to learn how to deal with.