Ten Days To Go

This seems to have come around awfully quickly. It seems only yesterday I was entering the Hamburg Marathon in a fit of pique, my hopes of a decent performance at Yorkshire ripped to shreds along with my left calf. In my last post I was approaching the spiritual anniversary of my calf tear (the day of the Surrey Half being once again six weeks before the marathon was surely was a bad omen?) and intent on staying home and wrapping myself in cotton wool for the entire day. In the end I decided that I had to stop this stupid magical thinking and forced myself out for a short run (not the Surrey Half, I’m not completely insane). I found a ten pound note lying on the floor a couple of kilometres in. Magical thinking was back on. Surely that this had to be a sign that my luck has changed.

Since then I have got three 5k PBs. In fact I have got a PB every time I have tried to run 5k as fast as possible, and none of them have been on a typical PB course. It’s all much too good to be true and of course being able to get a 5k PB says nothing about your ability to get a marathon PB. Those bloody “predict your marathon time” sites are giving me a prediction just under 5 hours but I am trying not to get too hung up on this. If I can finish the marathon and tell people my result without them saying patronisingly “but at least you did it” I’ll be happy.

And so I turn my attention to the final stage of marathon preparation, the maranoia. You know, the bit where the time you would have spent running 20 miles in the rain is better spent being devoted to:

1. In depth analysis of weather patterns in Hamburg.
2. Creating a marathon playlist which is neither too long nor too short, contains no duff tracks, tracks I am bored of, mentions of walking, no bands from Yorkshire, Dublin or Brighton and just the right amount of Taylor Swift. Speculating which song will end up being the finish song. If there is a finish.
3. Scrutiny of own weight and realisation that weighing less than Paula Radcliffe does not make one faster than Paula Radcliffe, though it certainly does make one faster than one deserves to be.
4. Mental planning of marathon outfit and severe regret that Sweaty Betty does not sell cropped leggings with two side pockets.
5. Usual panic re getting lost on marathon route and ending up in Frankfurt. Also of missing plane, losing running shoes, being disqualified for bad German, etc.
6. Wondering what it must be like not being in the midst of marathon training and being exhausted and having no free time and constantly worrying about this sort of thing. It must be nice.