It was hot. For 26.2 miles it was hot. It was a shock to the system. Until last week I was running in Ron Hill tracksters and a jacket. The body just wasn’t acclimatised for wall to wall sunshine. The forecast (which some of you know I check “occasionally” before a marathon!) said sunny intervals. Someone forgot the intervals bit.

Daffodils in Glen Nevis

Fortunately I had the forethought on Saturday to purchase sun cream from Morrisons. So by the start of the race I was well suncreamed and vaselined to an inch of my life. Fuelled by a lovely big bowl of porridge especially provided by my great B&B we were off.

I was experimenting running by cadence rather than by pace. I’d done this quite successfully during my training and it worked well. By keeping an eye on the time I could tell I was running to my plan at a steady pace. The plan had been to up it a bit after halfway but with the heat I reconciled myself to continuing steadily on. Miles 13 to 15 for some reason felt hard – I’d have expected this to be a good period seeing as we’d turned at 13.1 and were on our way back. Gel and stretch at 15 miles seemed to give me a boost and I felt a bit better for the next few miles.

From there on it really was just a matter of grinding out the miles. I had to stop to stretch another couple of times as I was afraid of cramping but fortunately this didn’t happen. I always start near the back knowing I’m a slower runner but from mile 14 I was passing quite a few people who were obviously suffering from the heat. From mile 20 the mind games started. Once we got to 22 I told myself it was just a wee 4 miler left, imagining my 4 mile route at home. Then it was a matter of teeth gritted saying to myself the next sign will be 23, then 24, 25 then just 1 more mile to 26. I even managed to push a little in the last mile or so and to sprint at the finish (I use sprint in the loosest sense!). 4:33 on the clock. I was happy with that considering the heat and the training I’d done.

PS  By the way, I now have a lovely brand new Montane lightweight jacket bought a few weeks ago when the forecast read sleet/rain for 10 April. That’s probably why it was so sunny…..!

PPS At mile 21 I consoled myself that I just needed to run 5 more miles and I never had to do another marathon if I didn’t want to… by the time I was in the shower I was already planning the next one. Sound familiar anyone…

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Yes – it’s London marathon time again on Sunday and just in case you get a bit bored watching 26.2 miles of running when you’d rather be actually doing it, then why not play TechnoTrotter’s Marathon Bingo. Just click on the image to download a pdf version which you can print out.

Click on image to download TechnoTrotter's marathon bingo

If you need some more inspiration here are some of the running related books I have read and enjoyed. Some are serious, some are hilarious – all are inspiring. Simply hover over the image for further info.

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Just a timely piece of motivation passed to me by an elite runner the other day.

Think tired – feel tired – run badly

Think positive – feel positive – run well

Memorised for the inevitable part of the race where brain starts to scream “stop” and the negative thoughts seep in.

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Seven days and counting… actually 6 days 20 hours 57 mins….time for the butterflies to take residence in my tummy and the decisions on what top to wear, how many gels to carry etc etc. To be honest I’ve quite enjoyed my short taper runs last week – left the watch behind so no pressure or worrying about pace. The sort of fatalistic mindset that it’s all too late to do anything about it now anyway.

I’m not sure how I feel confidence wise about Dublin – on the plus side I’ve done the most consistent training I’ve ever done before a marathon which is good – on the down side I’ve felt a bit stale and lethargic the past few weeks which is not so good. As Mrs Tweedy tells Mr Tweedy “it’s all in your head” when he says them chickens are organised (fans of Chicken Run will understand!). Same could be said of marathon running or at least from mile 20 onwards!

6 days 20 hrs 54 mins now……. not that I’m counting you understand……….

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