Marathon
Left home just after 8 and entered the runners enclosures at about 9:15. Joined the toilet queue and survived them.
Set off at 10:32 and just plodded along at about 4:30 pace as I thought that would keep my foot injury at bay. At about 10 miles I spotted an Edinburgh runner from my other club and ran with him for a few miles. Got a few Eagles shouts. Thanks! Half way and I was on schedule and felt quite comfortable.
Mile 17 and my foot started to complain. At mile 18 it became angry and I had to stop and walk until the pain subsided. After that it became an 8 mile pain management exercises . Basically walk until the pain subsided and then run again until the pain became unbearable.
Weirdly enough the marathon went better than I had expected as I managed to get to the start line and finish. I wasn’t disappointed with the time as my expectations were quite low. I would hated to have to defer and wait another year.
Thanks for the opportunity and support along the way. Special thanks to Sarah with putting up with me.
I can now look forward to xc season.
That’s all folks!
Baljit
Week 18 Taper
No real issues. Tail ran club run and completed Gunnersbury parkrun slowly.
Week 17
This wasn’t a good start to the week I went for a slow 6 miler but packed up after 2 due to my right foot playing up. Wednesday club run was more successful. I went a bit faster than I planned but I decided that I needed to check whether I would survive EHM as I was pacing. The jog home was a bit painful though.
Saturday I decided to try Osterley parkrun just to give me a bit of confidence for the half. Managed that with no issues and also completed 8 laps of Lammas park as one of the lead bikes for the EHM mini miles. Kids are so fast.
EHM 2:15 pacing went fine so I decided I would attempt the marathon.