M 6.00 miles recovery (7:19mm avge)
T 7.17 miles general aerobic (6:28mm avge)
W 8.06 miles, including 2 miles @ 5:35mm (6:27mm avge)
T 4.09 miles recovery (7:15mm avge)
F Rest
S 2.15 miles recovery (7:23mm avge)
S 11.95 miles , including 11.48 miles at 5:48mm (5:52mm avge)
Total 39.42 miles (6:31mm avge)
After 119 days, 132 sessions, 1262 miles and a couple
of breakthrough races the final 7 days were here. The chance to execute
the race plan and deliver what I know I am capable of.
The week involved no sessions to speak of as I
really tapered my running down to try to bring myself to a peak for marathon day. As I mentioned last week I was a little concerned that I might
have been getting ill but I tried to ignore it
in the hope that it would just go but as race week progressed it soon
became clear that I was indeed ill. Thursday's recovery run was cut
short to 4 miles from 6 as I just felt awful. As Thursday progressed I
got worse and worse and I was starting to wake
up to the fact that the race probably wasn't going to happen. On waking
on Friday I had horrendous flu like symptoms, lethargy, headache, itchy
throat, cough and a very tight chest that I called in sick as I was in
no shape to go to work, I didn’t even get
out of bed until midday! By Friday evening though I started to perk up a
little but was certain by this time that I wasn't going to start the
race and had told Hania as such. I mean how can someone ill enough to
take a day off work on the Friday really be
in a position to race a marathon on the Sunday?!?! Maybe I'm just soft!
As the decision not to race had been made, I
stopped carb loading and got an early night on Friday. Saturday morning
came and although still bunged up and a little bit 'fuzzy' I felt a lot
better but still not in a position to race. As
the day wore on I continued to improve and decided that I would go for a
test jog to see how I felt. Strangely I felt OK. But it was only a two
mile jog and if I was to run on Sunday it would be a different kettle
of fish. 26.2 hard racing miles always finds
you out if you have a weakness. Anyway, I was coming round to the idea
that I would at least start the race but drop out if it really wasn't
going as it should. Like I said before racing a marathon is HARD and
will find you out, if you're not healthy you simply
shouldn't run. Luckily I had Edinburgh marathon booked as a back-up in
five weeks time but would make a final decision about racing on race
day morning.
I woke at 5:30 had breakfast and decided I would go
to Blackheath to start the race. It is an honour to run in the London
marathon, so many 10,000s would love to but never get the opportunity
and even if I expected not to finish it would
be silly not to take the opportunity to have a fun training run. :-)
Lining up just a row behind the elites is
incredible, they really are different beings. Awesome to see and an
absolute privilege to be in the same race as them. The plan was simple
then. Go out, get to race pace as soon as I could and see
how it felt and make a decision from there. Within the first quarter of
a mile I was conscious that it felt quite hard. Not a good sign!
Anyway crack on.... After a mile and a half I had
categorically decided that I would be dropping out of the race. I caught
up with my mate Ben Shearer who was gunning for sub 2:30 (we had been
planning to run together) and told him that
I was going to drop out and wished him well. He nailed the time by the
way with a 2:29:40. So now the decision was that I would run to
Bermondsey (11.5miles) where Hania, Mia, my Dad and Step-Mum Anne would
be. No pressure now, just enjoy it. So I did, I had
a fantastic time. Anthony Jackson, a guy from a Kent club caught up
with me who wanted to be paced at 5:45 per mile so I did this for a
couple of miles before telling him that I wanted to back off. Looks like
he managed to keep that pace to the end so I got
him in a good rhythm. :-)
I had great fun, high-fiving the kids at the side
of the road, showboating to the crowd at the Cutty Sark and even
stopping for a bit of a chat with a friend of mine who was out to watch
the race.
As I approached Bermondsey I was a little saddened
that I was to drop out because London Marathon is such an amazing
experience and dropping out where I planned to arguably missed out the
most iconic bit of the course, Tower Bridge. I told
myself that I could run around to the end and still do a reasonable
time in the region of 2:35-2:40 but at what cost? What would be the
point? I know I can run that fast as I've done it before and I still
wasn't completely better. I wasn't in full health.
No, stopping was the bravest but most sensible thing to do. So I did. I
stepped off the road and gave my daughter a big hug. She didn’t seem
too happy at all the commotion!
So onwards and upwards and now to focus on
Edinburgh Marathon on 27th May. I have been thinking about how best to
shape my training ahead of Edinburgh given I have already tapered and
have come to the conclusion that the best thing to do
is to gradually increase the mileage this week and ensure I am
completely better before embarking on a couple of big mileage weeks
again followed by a c10 day taper. I will do less VO2 Max stuff in this
period compared to the weeks preceding London as I feel
I need to go back and re-bake the cake a bit more rather than continue
to add icing.
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