Welcome to the shit show

The week started off really well. Monday night’s club run was more comfortable than any recent Monday run in a long while. Tuesday was a full day traveling back and forth to Paris for work, which left me stiff and in need of a stretch and run, so I was perversely looking forward to the 1k intervals that were scheduled for Wednesday. However, that morning I got two letters (I never get paper mail) one from the TSB with a new debit card and welcoming me to my new account and one from HSBC letting me know I’d been turned down for an account as I hadn’t provided the necessary identification. A quick check on Equifax and sure enough it showed a seemingly endless list of credit checks against my name and address.

So I have been on hold, to various banks, credit card companies and Action Fraud getting a crime reference number. It isn’t until you have to do this over and over again you truly understand how awful the phone systems are across the board. It took two days to sort out everything (I hope) and there was still a day job I had to get done which meant I missed two sessions! Not happy.

The run in

So that I didn’t end up missing too much the session planned for Thursday was bumped to Friday where I did the Gunnersbury Parkrun route after work which turned out to be as tough as Monday runs seem to have become. The stress of the days before, running after a day at work with little rest and poor fuelling meant I wasn’t in the right mind set for this. Forgetting the calf compression also didn’t help and I had an awful run. All parts of my legs were screaming at me, my heart and lungs hurt. Shouldn’t everything be feeling easier now? If I’m in the taper then surely 5k should feel like a literal walk in the park! What was the rest of this slide in to the marathon going to feel like?

Saturday morning I was up bright and early. For the first time in a long time the training lined up with a Runthrough race, just about, and I was off to have a little run around Battersea Park. Jenny had me down for 1.5k warm up with a 5k effort at RPE6 (as I don’t have a pace I’m targeting) and a 1.5k cool down. If I tacked on 1k to the warm up and cool down it would fit into the 10k race nicely. So at half nine on Saturday morning I was stood to one side watching the 10k start group trot across the start line and I joined the back of the pack. Immediately the usual pains and complaints from the body presented themselves making me question why I was doing this and consider what point in the run I could walk for a bit. I held an easy pace and slowly picked my way through other runners for the first lap. As the second lap started my watch beeped and told me to run, I straighten my back, lifted my shoulders up and picked up the pace. I began targeting runners ahead and worked on closing the gap and passing them for the next two laps. It felt good, I wasn’t quite in the flow but I was enjoying the feeling of having to work for it. The heart beat a little faster, the breathing was a little harder, but never difficult.

As the third lap ended my watch beeped once again and told me to cool down, so I dutifully dropped the pace back down and enjoyed the jog back round to the finish line being complimented on my coordinated outfit by one spectator on the home straight. It was only 10k, half of that easy and half at effort, it still felt tough at the end though. Every run does and I’ve come to realise that its all relative. Regardless of distance it always feels the same at the end, it must be a mental thing. If I know I’m running a 5k it feels the same as if I had just run 21.1k and, I’m hoping this is exactly the same as 42.4k on Sunday and my mind and body just adapt.

The term long run doesn’t really seem to apply to 16k anymore, but that was Sunday’s plan. The idea was to get up early and run down to Hyde Park via Chiswick, Hammersmith and South Ken. Back through Notting Hill, Holland Park and down to Turnham Green. It didn’t end up being as early as I’d wanted though, didn’t sleep too well the night before so took a little bit longer getting out of bed. When I set off though I felt great. Nothing hurt, the legs felt better than they have for a long time and the breathing was gentle. My watch told me I was running a little faster than I wanted so held myself back a bit, good practice for the start line next week. Thankfully it was still early enough for the pavements to be quiet as I closed on Hyde Park. I cut through the middle of the park to keep it at 16k and from then on it was all down hill. I finished up back at home and felt great, I just hope I feel great at the end of next week.

Victory lap

That’s pretty much it now. I have the short club run for an easy 5k on Monday evening, rest on Tuesday, fartlek at track on Wednesday and then an easy 8k run home after work on Thursday. All done. Just the matter of the Sunday long run to get to the end of.

The training for this marathon started at the beginning of the year. Since then I have run 81 times, spent 90hrs running covering over 800km (500 miles). There have been some very high highs and some very low lows. I have practiced how to eat and drink before and whilst running, how and when to go to the toilet or not as the case may be. I’ve written 16 blogs which took a little while to get comfortable with but once I was in the flow they have become very cathartic and helped me look back and understand a lot about myself. Have helped deal with the emotional and mental challenges a training block like this has. I hope you have enjoyed reading them, maybe seen a little of yourselves in them.

My race kit is all arranged and put to one side, my warm, charity donation, clothing is ready. The SiS gels and Caffeine bullets are in stock and the new shoes have a few miles in them. I’m off to the expo for the Saturday to pick up my number and get my name printed onto the Eagles vest and then I’m all done.

The hard work is behind me. All that remains is to get on the Eagles coach on Sunday morning and run my Victory Lap in front of the cheering crowds of people.