Three weeks to go!

Three weeks tomorrow is the half marathon. I'm whispering this, just in case (of what? not sure) - I think I might actually be able to do it.


Since the attack of the flying ants and the 5km race, I have done another few runs along the coast path - a brisk 3km, plus two 11km ish runs which were overall pretty horrible and hilly and tough. I kept finding myself at the top of hills about to run down them, not wanting to because I knew I'd be running back up somewhere along the line.

I did these runs quite early (for me) at about 8am, when the paths were very quiet and all you could hear was the  waves on the shore. I saw several birdwatchers with their binoculars and trousers tucked into their socks, and got barked at by a few runner-spooked dogs.

Matt came with me on the one this morning and it helped to have someone shouting at me (in the nicest way possible) as I ran up the hills. I even managed to run all the way up the final hill home - although I all but collapsed at the top. I don't know if it was the early morning, the tough terrain or simply too much wine and food this week, but I felt a bit unfit and out of shape - even though I know I'm not. Suppose there are just days like this.

After the two week break due to knee pain, I am not going to reach my target of running the half marathon distance before the race itself, and I think I'm actually going to keep at a long run distance of about 12km in the next few weeks with lots of smaller faster runs to try and avoid injury before the big day. It's hard to know what pace is going to work for me on the day - I try to keep to a good pace on my long runs but hills etc don't help. Anyway, not long to go now!