It is the night before London Landmarks. I am nervous and am posting too much to Facebook, carb loading with vegan millionnaire shortbread, listening to stompy music and lining my kit up neatly.
I have not had a lot of time for training in the last week since work decided to lumber me with six twelve hour shifts in the space of seven days. Monday was my one day off and I went for a 9km run around the marshes. My legs were still feeling quite tired and heavy as a result of slightly overdoing it the previous week, and I felt like I was really plodding, but I was pleased to get home and find I had got PRs on five Strava segments that I run regularly, including the infamous Springfield Park Peanut. Obviously not as slow as I thought. It is weird thinking that I will not be doing any long slow marsh runs for the next four months or so – I really need to concentrate on my cycling and swimming until the triathlon, and I already have Chase The Sun on Wednesdays, track on Thursdays and parkrun on Saturdays which is more than enough running.
My strategy for tomorrow is:
- Aim for 2:45, not for a PB. Accept that I am not ready for a HM PB attempt (yet).
- Definitely do not run the first kilometre in under 7 minutes.
- Stay away from pacers.
- Strike deal with weather gods.
- Wear the leggings that fit and have no pockets instead of the ones that I have to keep yanking up. Not quite sure what I will do with the gels yet.
- Avoid catching infectious diseases in the run up to the event.
- Keep running, even if at walking pace. No walking allowed. Running a slow half is better than getting the same time with spells of walking, or at least it is in my head.
I’m sure all of this will pay off and atone for my rubbish performance in my last half. Maybe.
In other news, I was back volunteering at Finsbury Park this morning and managed to tick off two volunteering roles for the price of one by managing the funnel and writing the run report (“don’t worry” I said to the run director, “I am better at writing than at running”). The weather was favourable this week and none of the equipment decided to make a run for it, which was very good because I had the responsibility of carrying a clipboard around. I very much liked carrying a clipboard around because everyone knows people who carry clipboards are important. My job was basically to bellow at anyone who attempted to funnel duck or overtake in the funnel (and Linda who was too busy sodding about with her phone to take a token), and to make sure the timekeepers and token dispensers were in sync. However as the funnel at FP is very very long by the time I had checked one runner was correctly placed, it was time to run back to the timekeepers and check the next! I spent more time running than some of the actual runners! My Fitbit actually recorded it as an activity. It thought I was doing aerobics. How very 80s.
After the run I reluctantly handed the clipboard back and went for refreshments and parkrun related chat with fellow obsessive tourist, Christine, then it was home to write the report. The hardest thing about this was not injecting it with my trademark negativity and pessimism. Not that there was anything in particular to be negative or pessimistic about as I had a lovely morning and everyone behaved themselves. You can judge how I did here.
7:07 