Saturday 14 April 2012

Everybody Wants to Run the World!

A week today I will have run the Virgin London Marathon. Eek! I'm feeling nervous, and excited and immensely proud to be taking part in one of the most iconic runs in the world.
I am in the 'tapering' stage now which feels a little odd after so many weeks of fairly intense training. Along with reducing the mileage I have been running I am meant to be busy carb loading, which sounds appealing but actually it feels a bit piggy to me now. Throughout the training my appetite seemed to go through the roof, and I was eating little meals between meals, but the hunger has reduced along with the miles. I'm trying to make sure I eat well in the last week though, and will continue with my tried and trusted porridge before running. (I can confirm that poached eggs and Easter eggs do NOT make a good breakfast before exercise, just in case you were wondering!)


I followed a 16 week marathon plan (but tweaked it slightly!) and feel pretty happy with how it has gone (fingers crossed!) I started on New Years Day and I have run in deep snow, in the sunshine and in lots of rain. I've had lots of early morning runs which have actually been a great wat to start the day. I've had some highs (running 18.9 miles across South London) and lows (the boredom at about week 8, and missing the start of The Human Race Half Marathon!) I've changed shape physically and have actually started to feel like a long-distance runner, although I always wonder why on earth I am doing it for the first mile of every run!

I've also raised a large sum of money already for my charity, ARC (this post explains why I chose them) so thank you all who have kindly and generously donated money. Huge thanks go to my employers and collegues at RSH+P who took part in the Quiz Night and Raffle.
I took part in the 16 mile Human Race Breakfast Run on the 1 April, and despite a hectic start to the race I felt really comfortable throughout. It was a beautiful day and the double loop route around the River Thames between Kingston and Hampton Court Palace was very scenic (plus there are tons of shops for after the race!) Here a some of the photos of me taken by the official photographers on the day:




So with just a week to go, I have done all I can and now only time will tell how it goes on the day. If you are planning on coming along then do let me know; I and the other 30,000 runners would appreciate as much support as possible, and if the rain holds off then it will be a great day out. You can check the route here. And if you can't make it then don't worry, I'll be posting a summary of the day just as soon as I'm able. Wish me luck!

Vital statistics: Total miles run (so far): 276.4 Total Hours run (so far): 43.34

If you would like to donate some money to a great cause you can find my Just Giving Page here

1 comment:

  1. I am in awe! That will be an amazing achievement for you and I wish you all the best with it!:) x

    ReplyDelete

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