I’m in the last week before my marathon. I have absolutely no idea how well I’m going to run it anymore because although I started the training well with a very good base (for me) of running thirty miles a week and then upping that to thirty-five, I lost the momentum after a long weekend of a holiday at the end of the third week of August. This happened to coincide with the peak month of training where I should have done the most work, but I dove into a trough instead.
Then of course, following my book being published at the end of that month, I’ve been somewhat distracted and my head has not been in the game. But I cannot halt the march of time and there will be a reckoning in seven days.
I’m already looking at the long-range weather around Inverness. It is, currently, going to be a lot cooler than it was on Monday when I did my final longish run, about fourteen and a half miles (I was working in kilometres). On Monday it was apparently about twenty-two degrees (Centigrade) but felt a lot warmer. Despite the heat, I had decided to attempt something totalling my race pace. It was me, attempting to ‘cram’. You might be able to do that to a degree with academic exams, but you can’t do that with running. Especially when you don’t find running very easy to do.
My ideal race pace when I began this training block was around 11.30 minutes per mile, or 7.08 minutes per kilometre. This would get me below that elusive five hours. But if I want to take walking breaks around the water stations every three miles or so, I have to hold a slightly faster pace when I’m running. On Monday I managed a time of 11.56 mins per mile (this excluded a loo stop).
I know my super shoes will make the running easier, and I know that Loch Ness is a net downhill course, but I also know that I was wiped after not quite managing fifteen miles on Monday, so I’m no longer aiming for a time goal. I hope to get a PB, as overall I have put a lot of work in. But when I got my last PB (5:18:29), three years ago, all of my training runs were a lot faster than what I do now, so it really is hard to gauge how I will fare on the day.
Along the way of this marathon training block, I have questioned (many times) why I’m doing another marathon at all. The last time was a couple of years ago, and I had planned to stick to the shorter distances after that. Half marathons and below. I may be doing that after next week, but I have been at least pleased that my stamina and my strength have improved to a level that I haven’t had before.
There are still, however, lots of things that I could have done better. There are lots of IFs in my thinking. If I had continued the weight training all the way through the marathon block… If I had kept my weekly mileage up… If I had capped my long run at three hours and just done more back-to-back runs.
The problem with IFs is that I won’t know what the outcome is unless I apply them. Which might mean that I try this whole experiment again some time. I can’t say. The reason that I’m not completely hating on the marathon is probably because I haven’t done it yet. After next week, I may be ready to throw in the marathon towel for good. But at least I’ve been promised that the views are amazing.
theleadlesspencil 
Good luck 💪🏃♀️🤞