Last run done.....

A slow 3 miles has wrapped up my Manchester Marathon training for this year.

In 2 days’ time I will be standing on the start line of Manchester Marathon with thousands of other nervous people about to take on 26.2 miles! I’m feeling all sorts of emotions right now, excitement, nerves and something else I can’t quite put my finger on…… oh yes, Maranoia!

My body aches, I feel sluggish, I’m scared it’ll be too hot, and I swear I’m getting a cold!!

This is standard behaviour for me, the irrational chimp sneaking into my brain.

The rational part of my brain tells me that this is all part of the ‘taper tantrums’. I’m tired and achy because I’ve had an easy week with minimal running, I feel sluggish because I’m full of bagels, pasta and jacket potatoes, I’m worried about the weather forecast as its set to be very warm and I’ve only trained in the cold and I feel I’m getting a cold as this is my fear of not being able to breathe before every marathon! Reading this back to myself, I feel ridiculous!

I know I’m not alone in these feelings and I know what I would be saying to one of my clients if they were feeling this way, so I need to listen to my own advice.  At the end of the day I’ve paid to enter this event, no one made me do it and no one cares if I do it or not…. other than me.

That’s the bottom line, I think. I feel nervous because I care. I’ve invested time in training for this and I want to do well, for no one else but me. Don’t get me wrong, I want my kids and hubby to be proud of me but ultimately, I’ve put this pressure on myself to do better than I did for the Berlin Marathon.

Berlin Marathon was such a good event for me, getting it done in a decent time and loving every step of it feeling comfortable and in control the whole way around.  Going into it with a long-term glute injury took any time goal pressure off allowing me to just do my own thing and run to feel which is exactly what I did (look back at my Berlin Marathon blog). I honestly had the best time!

This time there are no excuses, I’m not injured and I've had a good training block so now the pressure is on to do well.  Ridiculous, I know!

So there, I’ve put it out there. I would really like a PB so that is anything sub 3:52. Putting my positive pants on, I deserve to do well as I’ve trained well for this, I’ve looked after myself, I’ve fuelled well, I’ve respected the taper (as hard as that has been for me) and I’m taking the carb load seriously.

For anyone else running a marathon this weekend I wish you all the luck in the world. Trust in the training you’ve done and treat the race itself as the victory lap.

See you on the other side!