Thanks

Thanks goes to Si for giving me £4 a mile to run the London Marathon.  My Barnardo's fundraising target has almost been made and if anyone wants to push it past the 1600 mark, be my guest.

Shoot the runner

I ran 3.5 miles tonight.  I'm tapering so trying to keep it slow and steady before April 13th.  This was more difficult than it sounds.  I was trying to keep to the pace of 10 minutes per mile for the first two miles which is what I want to run the first 3 or 4 miles of the marathon in.  But unfortunately my pace kept creeping up.  

It's weird. Four weeks ago I was struggling to run anything faster than 10 minute miles and now when I want to keep that pace it's virtually impossible.  I think it's nerves. Everyone I talk to who is running the marathon is just itching to get to the starting line now.  Yesterday, someone quite bluntly, as I was telling them about what's going through my mind, simply said: 'You just need to get it over with now, don't you?'

Yes.

Anyway, after the two miles of watching my speed I just let myself go and ran home.   I knew I was doing a decent pace but to my knowledge it was nothing out of the ordinary.  But when I got home and pressed End Workout on my Ipod Paula Radcliffe popped up to tell me I'd just run my fastest mile.  That's ridiculous, when all I wanted to do last month was go out hard hoping to try and improve my shorter distance time and simply couldn't. 

Anyway its given me a boost. A boost that seriously doesn't explain the bad mood I've been in all night. Weird things are afoot.

Oh, and Kasabian's Shoot The Runner came on at the end of my run which I though was apt for tonight's blog.

Will the real Lance Armstrong please stand up?

If you look right, you'll see my fundraising has almost hit target.  Thanks goes to all of you who have given money to my Barnardo's justgiving page, joined in with the pub quiz or promised me some cash.  Some wonderful people have given me one hundred pounds (Thanks Anna, Sar and number 6), which brings me on to another point.  Not how wonderful some people are, but guessing who gave what.  I know who number 6 is now, even though he tried to deflect me by saying he never plays number 6 but number 3 on the rugby field.  I got through his defense in the end and a big thanks goes to JL.  But who has signed themselves as Lance Armstrong on my justgiving site? It harks back to my first blog post and unless Lance Armstrong is paying British taxes I know it's not the legendary ex-Mr Crow. So Lance Armstrong please stand up and be counted, who are you?  

Marathon - not a tall order

Apparently due to heavily pounding the pavement for 26 miles marathon runners lose a centremetre in height by the time they reach the finishing line.  Don't worry it is only temporary.

Keep on running

On my 18 mile run - and yes, I will be banging on about this mileage for a while - I started by listening to the Flaming Lips and Polyphonic Spree.  The epic choral rock music seems to ease me into a rhythm which I do find difficult to get into at the beginning of a long run.  

I was just about ready to find some jangly pop on my Ipod when I met up with another runner on Tower Bridge and we ran together for a while, swapping tips and idling away a few miles. When we separated I hit play again and went back to the Polyphonic Spree.  I needed something else but couldn't be bothered faffing around concentrating on finding music when I needed to find my own running cadence.

Three miles later I was suffering and on a much needed walking break I hit shuffle. Luckily, the Klaxon's It's Not Over Yet didn't pop up, which has done in the past, but more irrelevant tunes from Oasis, Kate Nash and Kaiser Chiefs lifted my spirits.  Then with a mile to go Queen's Don't Stop Me Now took me to a different level.

I chuckled at the reference to keeping going and got into the beat. I then listened to see if not only Freddie's music could give me a boost but if his lyrics cold too.   

How could you not start swaggering, even if your legs are like jelly, your stomach's cramping up and there's a blister growing with every footstep on the inside off your right foot, to words such as...I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies like a tiger defying the laws of gravity?

Or I'm burning through the skies two hundred degrees that's why they call me Mr Fahrenheit?

Or I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars...satellite out of control?

None of it seems to make much sense now but on the run I was motivated.

I'm not a sex machine so I won't write those lyrics in the vague hope that I don't look sadder than anyone getting excited about a Queen song could.  Or anyone who at the end of the song who quickly took his Ipod out of his pocket and made it play again.  

I'm now going to devise a set list of songs that will instantly give me a jolt if I'm flagging through the latter stages of the marathon. Some will be cool tunes including Stone Roses, Courteeners and a lot of Oasis's first album.  But I'm guessing most won't. Somebody should stop me at some point though, I could get carried away.

Tip Number 2

I read a while ago that you should cut your toe nails two weeks before a marathon.  After yesterday's 18 mile run my middle toe on my right foot has a bruised nail.  It's two weeks before the marathon.  I've just cut my toe nails.

Over 18

I've just come back from running from Stockwell up to the Tower of London, through the City, on to the Strand, through Piccadilly, Westminster and then Chelsea, into Battersea Park and round it, over Chelsea Bridge, up to Vauxhall Bridge, and then home.

I8 miles.

Thanks must go to Claire who I met on Tower Bridge.  The 7 or so miles we ran together really helped ease the boredom and forget the fact my legs were getting very painful.

Although, as we departed 11 miles in, I slightly lost my pace but still got back home in around 3 hours.

More later.  Especially on the track which got me through my last mile.