Today is race day eve. In less than 24 hours I’m going to actually do what I’ve spent the past 6 months training for. I’m sitting here nervous, jittery with a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. Normally when I feel this way I’d go out for a run. I can’t today. I need to save my legs for tomorrow. Seeing as I can’t take my mind off of the run I decided to do a quick blog post to cover my final taper week sessions so I can dedicate tomorrow’s regular post to the race itself.
I’m still on holidays which is good and bad in a way. Good because I’m not at work and bad because I don’t have work to distract me from Sunday. It was an easy week of running which was frustrating in itself – I just want to run so it is hard to hold back. I put my faith in the TRR training Gods – they haven’t let me down so far! Here’s how the week went:
Monday 4/1/16
Easy 20 today. Wow! 20 minutes. Seemed hardly worth getting out of bed. I can’t even remember the last time I ran such a short amount of time. Anyhow, hardly worth it or not I got out of bed and did it. I ran from my place down to Marieville Esplanade and along Sandy Bay Road. I did 3.5km at an average pace of 5’46”. I started slow and then picked up speed as I warmed up. Just as I was starting to enjoy myself it was over. I resisted the temptation to keep going. Need to save the legs for Sunday.
I don’t know about the title but I’ll take it!
Tuesday 5/1/16
Rest day today but there were media commitments! Stuart (my Make me a Marathoner Colleague) and I were dobbed into the local paper by Cadbury Marathon Race Director, Shelley Miller. Stuart and I were keen to support the event and the TRR so we accepted an interview and photo shoot. It was a bit of fun running back and forth on the Domain for the photographer to get that perfect shot. I don’t think I would ever want to be a full time model – maybe it’s easier if you’re just posing in one spot. Anyhow, the finished product was published on Thursday. It was a decent size (no hiding!) and it give the event and the TRR some press exposure. Go us!
Wednesday 6/1/16
Final interval day today! 2x2km at ‘race pace’ with 90secs rest. I ran this at my new favourite place – Marieville Esplanade. Thankfully no training groups there today to make me feel like a useless snail. I set my Nike+ app to give me a pace indication every 500m and away I went. I thought I was going slow but I was going way too fast! I was aiming for 6’kms but I was doing 5’10”km to start. I tried really hard to slow down, to a point where it felt I was jogging in place. I landed on 5’39” average overall with my final km the slowest at 5’47”. I wasn’t puffed at all so I had plenty more in the tank. I think I’m raring to go! All this hard work and resting I’ve done is paying off.
Today’s session has just brought home the importance of not going out to quick to start because I’m feeling good. I’m going to stick with a pacer on the day to help me stick to an even keel. Thank goodness for the TRR Angels!
Friday 8/1/16
This was it. This was the last training run. An easy 20 which I ran in Sandy Bay on one of my old routes from when I first started running. I had a whole miasma of stuff floating through my head as I completed this final run. Running along this route made me realise how far I have come. Back in the day, I’d be breathless and moaning doing 7’kms on short runs and now I’m smashing out long runs at 5’40”kms knowing that I can even improve on that. 20 minutes didn’t give me much time to reminisce but it gave me enough time to realise that I’m as ready as I’ll ever be for the Cadbury Marathon.
It’s now Saturday afternoon and I can’t seem to take my mind off the run. I’ve spent the last 6 months obsessing over it. I’ve run 5 days a week rain, hail or shine and covered 1177km (the equivalent of 28 marathons) to prepare for the Cadbury Marathon. I’m hoping to reach the finish line smiling. I’m ready. Bring it on.
Smiling – how I want to finish the Cadbury Marathon.
