Good grief, where did all the time go? It seems like only yesterday that I had six months of training ahead of me yet here I am looking at the calendar that assures me there are less than three weeks to go until the London Marathon.
I’ve not done nearly enough long runs. My longest so far is 14-miles when my planner tells me I should have reached 18-miles by this weekend and I should be repeating the final long run of 18-miles next Sunday. Aarrrrghh!!
So now I’m panicking, worried that I’ll not be able to do the distance, stressing over whether to cut down the two weeks of taper to just one and try and reach the 18-mile target. Or do I stop and conserve energy and hope that I can do it on the day? I doubt very much that I’ll be able to run 26.2 miles without stopping and I’ve seen mention of run/walk plans where you run for 10 minutes then walk for one. But I’ve never trained doing that and it’s a bit late in the day to start now.
So, as you can probably tell I’m nervous as hell right now. I don’t want to let myself down, or any of the wonderful people who have donated money down. Can I really do this?
In lighter moments I feel sure that I can. I can be pretty bloody minded when I set out to be, and determination is one of the few things I have in spades. So maybe, just maybe, I can get through this. I’ve heard many tell of the mental challenge of a full marathon, and they’re 110% correct. Yes it’s vital to train, and preferably to train more effectively than I have. But it’s also vital that you have the mental determination to get you through the hard parts, when every sinew in your body is telling you to stop.
A few weeks ago I was jubilant having completed a half marathon. But only a week later I learned how to buy xanax legally online and ran 14-miles as one of my long runs. The half-marathon already feels like a walk in the park compared with a full marathon.
Soon I’ll be heading into London to register, pick up my race number and timing chip and then, a few days later I’ll be on my tod in a hotel the night before the big day. I can’t imagine I’ll sleep at all, even now I lie awake at night, stomach churning, wondering why I committed myself to this madness!
Still, I’m also told of the London effect, the millions of people who line the route cheering. Well I hope a few are still cheering when I get to them, it might be dark by then!