Week Twelve

Monday - 5 miles
Saturday - 5 hours (27 miles)

Sunday - 2 hours (11 miles) + 2 hours (10 miles)

This week has been pretty manic.  Work has been insanely hard - both physical tiredness and mental stress, I'm not going to lie, I'm not having a fun time at the moment.

On Monday, Toby and I did a short run together after work.  We did a reduced Midnight Runners loop and I stopped on Westminster Bridge for a photo which now seems more poignant following the terrorist attack two days later.  I run across that bridge every single week :(

On Wednesday I was in Milton Keynes for a funeral and I had planned to do a beautiful daylight run along the river, but due to extreme tiredness after a long day on Tuesday, I managed to leave my suitcase on the train.  It contained all my clothes for the funeral, my washbag, all my expensive running kit and my trainers.  There were tears but after multiple phone calls, the kindness of both family and strangers and two trips to Northampton, I managed to get it back and get to the funeral on time.  Running unfortunately bit the dust.

This weekend was always going to be tough.  I have long known that this was the hardest weekend of my entire training cycle and Toby and I had planned for it meticulously.  However, I felt spectacularly unready for it after the week I've had, and scared that it would destroy me for the undoubtedly difficult week ahead.  When I'm feeling a bit more human, I'll do a post on the motivation behind why I do it anyway...  Suffice to say, I set my alarm for 6am and went to bed early:

On Saturday morning I woke up feeling excited, typical pre-marathon nerves.  It was going to be a beautiful day and I had a stunning route planned. I set out at 7.40am (yes it really does take me that long to get my act together!) and headed off down the river. I went to Battersea, then on to Barnes, then Kew, then finally Richmond with a loop of Richmond Park to finish.  The plan was to run for 5 hours, which inevitably would end up being a marathon because it's pretty much impossible to run for that long and not run a marathon.

 Syon House, as viewed from Kew.  Kew Gardens.

 Richmond Hill.  Richmond Park.

There were lots of photo stops, snack stops, toilet stops, phone calls, looking-at-the-map stops, and the time includes all of these but nevertheless it was slow going.  I didn't feel at my peak.  I was grumpy and tired.  Toby met me at about 37km and ran the last section with me, during which I wailed, "Why am I so slow, do you think it's because I'm FAT?"  ... bloody hell, I'm high maintenance at the moment.  Toby, ever the diplomat, somehow managed to answer this in his typical measured and appropriate fashion!

Here I am at the end - this was my fifth marathon and my first this year.  Even I have to admit I don't look particularly fat, haha.

And here's the breakdown (unfortunately, due to Garmin-related user error on my part, this run is split into two parts) ... they were consecutive I promise!  Total was 27 miles (44 km) which is the furthest I've ever run in one sitting.  It was incredibly slow though.  Considering my marathon PB is 3:59....

For most people, that would be enough running for one weekend, but I'm not most people and the key thing about any race is feeling prepared.  I've always found that if you can run the race distance over two days, you'll be able to run it in one on the day i.e. if you can do 2 half marathons on Saturday/Sunday, you'll be able to get round a full marathon.

So.  Sunday's plan was to do another 4 hour run.  However, as I had the rare luxury of being in London for the weekend, I planned to do an exact replica of race day.  Toby and I were booked into the same hotel we plan to stay in the night before the race.  The lovely Sally, my physio friend, agreed to meet me at 8am and sort out my tired muscles, exactly as she will on the day of the race.  I ate the same dinner, the same breakfast, I wore the same kit.  The only difference was I did 2 x 2 hour runs instead of the full distance....

I deliberately timed it so that I would finish the first run at 7.30am, which is the time I anticipate finishing the first marathon.  This meant I needed to start from the red start line at 5.30am.  This meant leaving the hotel at 5am (I wanted to walk so I could check how long it would take to get there on the day of the race).  This meant getting up at 4am.  Sigh....

 Here I am heading for the red start, using the freebie map the hotel gave me.

 This is the road up to Greenwich Park and the gate leading to the red marathon start - unfortunately locked at 5.30am, but it gives an idea.  I ran the actual route of the marathon, to familiarise myself with the route, and it was really strange because I ran the backwards marathon last year so parts of it were quite familiar.  In particular I remembered this - where we stopped to take a photo at Mile 1, this feels like such a long time ago, hard to believe I will be doing it again in just four weeks!

Because the clocks had changed, it was still dark when I set off.  I ran for an hour and managed a pathetic 8.5km before turning round and heading back the same way.  As I ran back I saw this beautiful sunrise over Woolwich...

 ... before eventually arriving back at Greenwich Park which was now open.  I ran up to the bandstand where the backwards marathon finishes, then headed out of the park to meet Toby who was waiting in the car.  Total distance: 11 miles.  Not great in 2 hours, but I had run a marathon the day before....

We went back to the hotel and executed the plan.  I hopped in the shower, Toby ordered an epic room service breakfast, then I popped downstairs to meet Sally.  Came back up to the room to this extremely welcome sight and proceeded to scoff as much as I could manage!

Then Sally massaged my legs for an hour and tried to sort out all the damage while we had a good catch up!  At one point I was so tired I was drinking coffee during the massage to stay awake! Forgot to take a picture during so this was taken just before I headed out again, this time with Toby.

 Toby and I ran together from Greenwich to Bermondsey.  This was also part of the marathon route, but starting about 6.5 miles in, just a little bit further on from where I'd finished earlier this morning. We headed down to the Cutty Sark, which I imagine will be an entirely different experience on race day, then followed the route to Bermondsey where Toby hopped on the tube back to the hotel to avoid over-stressing his knee injury.

Meanwhile, I added on a bit of extra distance with a loop of Southwark Park, which was looking particularly beautiful today (you can just see the Shard in the distance)

Then I headed back the way I'd come, but a bit faster, so when I got back to Greenwich I needed some extra mileage and did a loop down by the river to add on another 20 minutes or so.  By this point I was very, very tired and struggling, but I kept on until I completed the two hours:

This time is frankly appalling - 10 miles in TWO hours, it's actually a record in terms of how bad it is.  On a good day I could do that distance in 1 hour 24 minutes!

Then again, I just ran 21 miles the day after a marathon.  Not many runners - even good, fast runners - could manage that, so I feel quite proud of myself really.  I'm also feeling surprisingly fine - I can even manage to get down the stairs of my flat, amazing!  From this point onwards I'm tapering so it all feels a bit more manageable.

Donations will be particularly appreciated this week: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/marathonmadness - thanks in advance xx