This weekend I went to Brighton, primarily to attend today's training workshop for "key taper and race day tips". This contained several nuggets of information, from the reassuring (it's normal to be paranoid about every niggle) to the practical (bring your own toilet paper). I was relieved to realise I'm reasonably well clued up on this marathon training lark, yet there were times when I felt like floatsam at sea. Is six weeks away from race day too late to start thinking about threshold runs?? Overall, I thought the workshop was useful.
The other reason for going to Brighton was to do this week's long run on the marathon route:
My run mostly followed the
marathon route so it's not a surprise on the big day. It's very different running through a city, as opposed to the green beauty of Richmond and Bushy parks. That most Westerly loop through the industrial estate (aka "the road to hell") probably was the most uninspiring and soul destroying route I've ever run. I really am spoilt on my training runs!
Beady eyed people will notice I took a couple of wrong turnings - I'm optimistic that on the day I'll have someone to follow and navigation won't be an issue! ;-)
I was pretty emotional by the time I finished the run. It turns out that running alone for almost three hours, covering 18.32 miles, in a strange city and without music took a little determination. However, I again proved to myself that I can run the miles I set out to cover - all the way to the finish line. That's a great experience for my final weeks of training.
Thankfully the niggles I developed after last week's long run came to nothing; this weeks niggles are relatively minor and par for the course.
Onwards!
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