I had purposefully approached this marathon a bit differently to my others. My aim was to train hard for Bristol Half and nail a pb there and then throw in a bit of marathon specific stuff to see what would happen off the back of that. It was all a cunning ploy to trick myself into not even thinking about the marathon until 6 weeks out as I was getting tired of the mental investment that goes into these things, especially when things don’t go to plan.

This approach was working great and things were going to plan and a 29:46 10000m confirmed I was in good shape (for a 10000m at least!). However, this is where things took a turn for the “less than ideal” (it’s hard to say “worse” knowing what I know now). The 10000m had really hammered my right calf and it was super tight. I was still able to run but I didn’t do any sessions the following week until doing the 1500/3000 in our BAL match. After seeing some good progress on the calf that week from just jogging, following the 1500 it was very very tight.

The next week was not good and I had a few days off, tried some x training, and had a couple of physio appointments for dry needling and massage. On the Wednesday I hit my lowest point when I tried to run home and my calf was painful the whole way home. I stuck it out as it was the quickest way to get home but it’s safe to say I was not a very happy camper when I got home. That week I managed 48 miles and no sessions.

Into Bristol Half week now and I’m obviously a little worried having missed loads of sessions and loads of runs but the week gets off to a good start and looks like I’m back running again. Well, until Wednesday morning at least when I go out for an easy jog pre work and I get this really sharp pain in my left heel. It’s there for my run and then painful to walk on later that day at work. I think nothing of it and put it down to one of those things that materialises one day and is gone the next day. Sadly it wasn’t gone so I had the next 3 days doing nothing and hoping it would go away for my race or at least not be too painful so I could at least finish. I knew if I could avoid landing on my heel I’d have a good chance of running and it’s lucky that when I run fast my style is different and I don’t heel strike as much as I do when jogging, well that’s what I kept telling myself. I was somehow convinced to go for an early morning jog with Steve Way, the theory being that if I can’t even run 10 minutes then there’s no way I should be racing. Good logic but I’d rather not know. Anyway, I did the early run and passed with flying colors (bar 1 minor sharp pain scare!). As per my plan, I loaded up with ibuprofen and caffeine (I don’t think Liz Yelling thought I was the smartest grape in the bunch when at dinner on the Saturday evening I said I was going to do this!) and managed to get around in a decent time without any pain. It was well off what I had wanted but given my problems I was just pleased that I was able to finish. My heel was a little sore afterwards but I was expecting worse so it was progress of some sort. 58 miles for the week.

Post Bristol and I’ve developed serious man flu and my heel is still sore so I don’t run or x train or anything for 4 days straight. On Friday I jog 3 miles and on Saturday I jog 5 miles. Sunday is Chippenham Half marathon and it was seriously hard work as I was still sick but I somehow manage to pull away in the final mile to win it in 69 low. Bit of a warm down and it’s 28 miles for the week.

5 weeks to go and the week starts off with a non running day as I’m still feeling pretty sick. Despite still being sick, the rest of the working week goes ok and I’m now back to running doubles. This weekend is where I try to get back on track and bag 21 miles on the Saturday which includes 9 miles at a decent pace (5:15-5:40). Sunday was just going to be about 15 miles since I’d done 21 the day before but what usually happens with me is I add on more and I ended up doing another 21. That makes my 2 longest runs since VLM in April!! 101 miles for the week.

With only 4 weeks until Amsterdam I really need a big week here as I don’t feel like I’ve been training for a marathon. I’m doing my usual commute to and from work which is 8 miles each way and I manage a decent session on the Tuesday night which is 6M warm up and then 30 laps of the track (wanting 80s laps) and a bit more warm down (just under 16 miles total). Turns out to be ok for pace but heart rate rising too much and felt way harder than I’d like - 3k 10:00 5k 16:45 6k 20:07 9k 30:01 10k 33:29 12k 39:54. On Thursday I fly out to Toronto where I’m to help with pacing at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. It was a tough decision to make as I had a holiday booked in Russia that I ended up bailing on. As for the pacing, I was tasked with taking the leading ladies to at least 25km at roughly 2:24 pace. I really needed a good long run and I was confident I could get to 30km at that pace and hopefully 35km. Turns out I was right and we got to 30km slightly ahead of schedule and then picked up the pace slightly. It started to get a little harder and finally at 37km I decided that that was enough and let the ladies battle it out over the last 5km. I eased up a little and jogged a 6 minute mile before resuming at a decent pace, I wasn’t going to go this far and not finish! Without killing myself I ended up with 2:23:54 which was only a minute down on the winning ladies time. If I had have run that marathon seriously I don’t think I would have broken 2:20 but I may have sneaked a small pb. Total mileage for the week was 107.

With the last couple of weeks’ long runs my long run tally was rather pitiful with 2x16 and 1x20 in July, 2x17 in August, and 2x21 and 1x26.2 in September. I knew I was lacking in the long run department and I’m glad I didn’t go back and look as it’s not my typical buildup (and I’m really clutching at straws calling 16s and 17s long runs).

3 weeks to go I start some kind of taper. The first couple of days are enforced rest due to recovering from the night out after the marathon and then travel back to the UK. Nothing too exciting in this week other than some jogging and a few fast-ish miles and I rack up 70 miles off 8 runs.

2 weeks to go and this is where I run my usual pre marathon session which is along the lines of 8M at marathon pace (or 32 laps). I’m really looking for my heart rate to hold steady in these and it wasn’t doing that on Tuesday’s effort so I thought I’d try again on Thursday. Track on Thursday was over run with too many people in lane 1 so I jogged around the in field instead and decided I’d come back in the morning. Friday morning was a much better time as there was no one there and it went a lot better than Tuesday’s efforts with the HR holding steady but the pace was a little off (roughly 80.5s laps which is more like 2:21 pace). So a pb was looking likely and sub 2:20 was also looking within reach. As a last little hit out before the big day I ran the Hackney Marshes 5k on Saturday and was pleased enough to run 15:19. An easy 11 miles on Sunday brought me up to 80 miles for the week.

Race week was finally here and I really cut back on the miles. I still ran doubles on Mon, Tues, Wed but they were only 3-5 miles each run. I was worried about my weight as I was about 2kg heavier than my usual racing weight but my depletion routine sorts out a bit of that excess. Sure enough come Friday and I was just over a kg down (so still 1 kg heavy) but this would probably go back on since I was about to start carb loading. Monday to Saturday mileage totalled about 41 miles.