Achieve

There comes a point in a marathon when it is not just about fitness. It is not just about your preparation. It is not about your pace. It is not about how you have fueled. It is about one thing. Guts.

I think no matter who you are or what level of running you are at, reaching within yourself to find something you did not know that you had is what defines long distance runners. No one ordinary runs a marathon. Only extraordinary people do it; those who can persevere when everything is telling them not to carry on.

I am not talking about me here. I am talking about everyone who has found the courage to sign up for a marathon and take on the challenge. It takes a special calibre of person to even contemplate what is needed to do one and then to sacrifice so much to go through the training to even get to the start line. I feel privileged to know and run with some of them.

“a race like no other”

Last Sunday marked the culmination of months of training to get ready for the virtual Dublin Marathon, a race I would run in Aberdeen with my friend Jeanette. We had both run two marathons before, but this would be a race like no other, because unlike the others which had crowds lining the route at times, as this was a virtual race we would do it on our own with no other motivation other than each other to keep going.

The first marathon I ran – in Stirling in Scotland in 2018 – was a predominantly rural route, but even there, every so often you would run through a village or a town where people had come out to support, or even you had people who had come to the end of their driveways in the countryside to offer encouragement. In Barcelona last year, as a city centre marathon, there were crowds most of the way,

“running the event when no one was watching”

But this run would be more like the training runs you do in the build up to a big race. As I said in my blog last week, marathons are made when no one is watching. This would be the running the event when no one was watching. A true test of mental strength and finding the guts to carry on when it would get really tough.

One thing you can never do for a run is choose the weather, but the conditions were pretty good for Scotland at the end of October, though it was as windy as the forecast had predicted. Some parts of our planned route were a bit exposed and would likely be right into the wind so when we went out at our usual Sunday morning time of 7am, we had in mind a plan to vary the route slightly depending on how we felt.

The planned marathon route

When doing the really long runs, I have a large bowl of porridge and a large glass of orange juice before I start then run with an electrolyte drink and four gels, with a plan to take them at approximately six, twelve, seventeen and twenty two miles. I find with gels they take a few miles to kick in so this kind of tempo has worked for me before, giving a boost for the final part of the race.

Following the maxim of doing nothing new on race day, Jeanette and I met up at our usual time of seven o’clock in the morning to start off our race. We had agreed we would aim for around ten minute miles, perhaps slightly under, and see how we felt as we went round.

“a nice boost”

The opening few miles of the run were relatively sheltered and we both felt pretty good as we pushed on towards halfway. These are my “free miles”, the ones which pass by without thinking about them at an easy pace and lots of chatting.

We had a planned run past my sister in law’s house as my wife would be outside there for a bit of moral support and we were also delighted that one of our JogScotland colleagues, Mark, came out from his house to cheer us on too. These gestures really gave a nice boost and highlighted again the vital role crowds play on normal race days.

The next part of the run was to be the most exposed, up around the city’s airport and also pretty much straight into the wind, which by now was very gusty. This was hard going, the chatting had virtually disappeared and we decided to vary the route slightly to avoid the most windswept part. I had had this in mind earlier in the route, so had actually run an extended loop in just the third mile to give us some extra distance early on to cope with change like this.

“few things more demoralising”

The middle part of the second half of a marathon run – from miles fifteen through to twenty – are the ones I find most mentally challenging. There is still a significant way to go and it really is just time for clocking off the miles. I have thought before, on a real race, that there are few things more demoralising than the mile markers for miles fifteen to nineteen. Physically I felt good, though I did have a bit of a stitch around the sixteen mile mark, and as we got to seventeen miles and went for our third gel, we walked for the first time.

Jeanette needed to catch her breath, so we walked briefly and then I offered to do a loop back. This would involve me keeping running when she walked, then turning around and catching her back up again. We would do this a few times between then and the end of the run.

At eighteen miles we faced the final significant hill on our route. And this was when Jeanette showed the kind of guts I referred to earlier. Without stopping, we ran up the hill together and when we reached the top, we kept going, recovering while running, something which I feel is a key aspect to endurance running.

“this was hard going”

It was tough to get up it, without a doubt, really tough, but we knew if we did it then the rest of the course would be predominantly downhill and flat. However, we were now heading south west and once again into the wind. We were still on target distance wise, despite our earlier detour, but this was tough.

When I get to this part of a race, I try and ratonalise in my head how much running time I have got left and how this equates to other runs I have done. For example, at twenty miles I know it is 10km to go, so roughly an hour or so of running. At ten miles into a half marathon, it is 5km to go, so approximately thirty minutes of running left.

“it is about what is to come”

I try and use this tactic to then forget about whatever distance I have done to this point and to focus purely on what is left. It helps me relate to my more usual running distances. If you said to me during my training period, “go out and run 10km”, I could do that with my eyes closed and without even thinking about it. I try to bring that attitude to the closing stages of a race. It is not about what I have done already, it is about what is to come, and knowing that I can definitely run the distance I have left.

Once we got past this stage of the race, I began to feel really good again. My breathing was really controlled now, very steady, and while I was undoubtedly tired I was confident about what lay ahead. Jeanette, on the other had, was beginning to struggle. My previous marathons had been solo pursuits. I ran them on my own but as part of a bigger race. This time was very different. We had trained together for the past few months, so we were going to finish together, no matter what.

“This was a real slog now”

When Jeanette took her running breaks, I would do my loopbacks. At times I would run beside her, at times running ahead to give her a target to aim at (she probably wanted to shoot me at this point anyway for putting her through the agony). I swore at the wind as it gusted around us as we got to buildings near the harbour area as we closed in on the last few miles. This was a real slog now for her but did she give up? Did she quit? Had she had enough? Yes, she had. But she gutsed it out. She showed in those moments why she is a marathon runner.

As we got to twenty five miles, there was another nice surprise. Another member of our JogScotland club, Derek, and his wife, were there to cheer us on, even giving us a final energy gel if we needed it to get over the line.

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A final boost within sight of the finish line with Derek and his wife

Up onto the Aberdeen beachfront we reached, but by this point, because of the loopbacks we had done, our distances were quite out. At this point Jeanette told me to go ahead, to do what I had to do to finish. I ran ahead for about a hundred yards, but I could not leave her so I looped back again. By this point I was looking at my watch a lot, reaching for that magical 26.2 number. And when I got there, I stopped my watch. Took a breath. And then restarted it to help get Jeanette over the line. I spotted my wife further up the beach promenade, and she had been tracking me on the app provided by the race organisers.

As I reached her she shouted to me “you’ve still got around a mile to go”. This was pretty devastating to hear as Jeanette had less distance to travel than I did, despite me having run further! (Afterwards we realised there were issues with the app tracking). It was now pretty cold and the wind was very gusty so we ended up running both into the wind and with the wind behind to get over the line. In pretty miserable conditions, Jeanette got there and stopped but I kept on going to get to what the tracking app was telling me I had to do. And then it was over. We had done it!! We were both three-time marathon finishers!

Celebrating at the finish line

A nice surprise at the finish line was meeting another club member, Claire, who had come out to see us too. I think this really demonstrates how lucky we are to be part of such a supportive JogScotland club, that people would go out of their way to cheer us on.

Jeanette’s husband was also there too and as we very quickly cooled down it was straight on with a warm jacket and into our cars to get home and start the recovery process.

Trying to stay warm now we had stopped

Now I do not want you to think that we are all super healthy, only eat and drink things which are green,”my body is a temple” types. As soon as I was in the car with my wife it was straight to Burger King to get a take away to start the recovery and once the Chicken Royale large meal with Coke plus chicken nuggets had been inhaled, it was straight into alcohol and chocolate with my feet up, followed later by the pudding to end all puddings, apple crumble and custard. There is no point in doing these type of challenges unless you can reward yourself at the end, including a Guinness in honour of the Dublin event!

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The day after the race I also got a lovely surprise in the post when my race t-shirt was delivered. I know now precisely what I will be wearing the next time I am out for a run. However, it will be some time before we receive our finisher’s medal and special beanie hat. As Ireland has gone into lockdown, the race organiser’s office is closed, so it will be around six weeks before they get sent out. It will be a lovely pre- Christmas boost when it comes.

My finisher’s t-shirt

This experience of a marathon was very different from the others I have run. This was every bit as much of a physical challenge as the others – and one where I felt I went in much better prepared than before and that definitely bore fruit the further we got into the race. At no point did I think I was really struggling. I felt pretty comfortable really all the way round, so much so that for the first time ever I actually did feel like I could sprint for the line for those final few metres.

But with no crowd watching, with no teams of volunteers manning water stations, no people on the streets handing out jelly babies or sweets, no kids holding up encouraging or funny signs, with no medal or goody bag at the end and also with no high-fiving or hugging your running buddy after finishing it truly was a marathon like no other; a true test of mental strength.

I have spent this week, really not doing very much, and no running. This is not because I have not felt like running – but more that I have been battering my body for months in preparation for the race. As a result, taking a few days off is what I needed. Given how I felt after my previous marathons, this time around, my legs actually were ok; a bit of stiffness, particularly on day two, but nothing more than that. Again, my preparation really came to the fore.

When I finished in Barcelona I did not know if I would do another marathon, uncertain if I could put myself through the punishing training regime again, yet here I am having completed a third. Will there be a fourth? The ongoing uncertainty about mass races may make the timing of that uncertain, but as things stand, I have already signed up for the Manchester Marathon next October. Bring. It. On.

Ready

There will be no crowds to cheer us on. There will be no mass start. There will be no mass warm up. There will be no queues for the toilets (not a bad thing). There will be no high fives on the route. There will be no people with signs urging us on. There will be no hugs at the end with my running buddy. There will be no goody bag at the end. There will be no one to hang the medal around our necks. But there will be a marathon on Sunday. And my friend Jeanette and I are going to run it.

Virtual runs, like the one we are doing this weekend, can never replace fully the atmosphere you get on the day of a real race. The nerves, the excitement of the runners massed together at the start, the approach to the line awaiting the bouncing heads to start and know that you are about to start running and embark on another timed adventure. But virtual races are pretty much all we have these days, and for me, a virtual marathon will be the toughest of challenges.

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Jeanette and I on some of our training runs in the past few months

At the start of the year, I had no real thought of running a marathon in 2020. In 2019, I had run further than I had ever done in a year and after completing the Barcelona Marathon in March last year – and having such an incredible experience doing it – I thought I might never run another. And if I did not, then that would have been such an incredible, memorable way to end my marathon career. My blog about that race day is here

But then this year happened, and running became my solace; my place and space to think, to relax, to put the stresses and challenges of the day behind me and spend some time doing something for me. Lord knows there were plenty of days where the main thing which kept me going was the prospect of going for a run in the evening. But even then, I did not think there would be any races this year. Real or otherwise.

“the challenge I find so crucial to maintain motivation”

However, the rise of the virtual race – where you run a certain distance on your own (or with a small group of others) – has come to offer the only real opportunity to set a goal and provide the challenge I find so crucial to maintain motivation.

The Dublin Marathon is one that I really would like to do, but as this year it moved to a ballot – where you have to apply and then hope your name gets drawn at random – I did not even think about entering. But it, like almost every other race this year, was cancelled and then the organisers made the decision to transform it into a virtual race. Run the distance in your home town, but do it knowing that others are also challenging themselves at the same time as you.

I signed up towards the end of July, spurred on by a friend who had run it twice previously and was all ready to make it three in a row this year. By that point, I was already running very regularly. As I am no longer travelling with work, I found it easy to slip into a training plan of running five days a week, including a long run at the weekend of anything up to half marathon distance and more.

“I really began to feel the benefit”

Though I found running the longer distances in the summer months much more challenging than my previous marathon training – the two others were Spring marathons so the training was through the winter – as the temperatures cooled down and we moved into Autumn, I really began to feel the benefit of those warm weather miles in the bank.

Jeanette was training for the Amsterdam Marathon so we began to do our Sunday morning training runs together. It was due to take place last weekend, but also got cancelled. However, Jeanette decided to keep training with a plan to run the Dublin race with me too. Having trained on my own pretty much for the previous marathons I have done – certainly for the long weekend runs – it has been a real pleasure to run together as the mileage has built and built.

“the hard work is done”

The last week has been full on taper time, that part of training where the hard work is done and it is just a case of keeping things ticking over before race day. This does not mean not running, but it does mean scaling things back massively from what we were running a couple of weeks ago. It has also meant quite a lot of time resting with my feet up and eating loads!

Last Sunday was our last run of any serious distance before this weekend’s race, so we ran a ten mile route, which, in distance terms, felt really short. However, I chose to make the route as hilly as I could to deliberately make it hard. In fact, the elevation gain for the run was around the same as we will face for the marathon course!

Our lumpy ten mile run

The other advantage of doing a virtual race is that you can choose your own course. In our training we have run on almost all the big hills in the city, including our regular three mile hill to get back to our houses (we live quite close together). In planning the route, therefore, the last thing I was going to do was finish on an uphill section. It is impossible to avoid all the hills, of course, but in choosing the route, I have tried to make it as flat as possible. A marathon is difficult enough without making it even harder than it needs to be. My favourite place to run in the city is along the beachfront, so we will finish down there.

The planned route

But when we get to the end – and we will get to the end, I am sure of it – we will be met by our families (hopefully) and that will be it. No fanfare. No sprint to the line and hearing the beep of the timing chip registering for the last time as you complete the challenge. No marshalls pointing you to the water points or to the volunteers congratulating you and giving you the goody bag and the medal.

The final few miles of the training plan are done

There will be none of that. But in many ways, because there is going to be none of that makes the challenge all the more special and meaningful.

Marathons do not just happen on the day. They are made when no one is watching. They are made on the cold, wet Wednesday nights when you drag yourself out the door to tick off another training run from the plan. They are made on the days when the last thing you want to do is run. They are made on the days when it is a struggle. We have been through all of that. We are stronger for it. Both of us have run two marathons before. We know, in our heads and in our hearts, what it takes to run twenty six point two miles. And on Sunday we hope to make it three. We are ready.

Seven Days

I have reached the point where there is nothing more I can do. With a week to go to the virtual Dublin Marathon, I am as fit as I am going to be. I feel ready.

The weeks immediately prior to a marathon – or any race – are when I usually spend my time worrying about a variety of things. My fitness, what clothes am I going to wear, what will the weather be when the race takes place, how will I travel to get there, what will it be like at the start line and on and on and on. This time around? I feel relaxed about the challenge ahead. Still cautious, of course, but I am in no way in panic mode.

There are loads of reasons why this is the case. One of the more obvious ones is that, as it is a virtual race and I can run it from my house, then there are no worries about travelling, accommodation, parking, getting to the start line. The start line is as soon as I step out my front door and start the app on my phone to signal that I am on my way. And the weather? It is Scotland in October. The weather will be the weather, so there is little point in worrying about that.

“I have done all I can”

But I think the main reason why I feel relatively ok with everything is that I know that I have done all I can to get me to this point. I have followed the training plan since I signed up for the race at the middle of July and in fact, for a few of the weeks of the training plan I actually exceeded the mileage that I was due to run.

This comes from the knowledge of the previous training regimes I have followed for the two other marathons I have done. This time around, I knew what was ahead of me and while yes, there have been moments where I have felt a bit overwhelmed by the challenge ahead, generally I have approached the training knowing that each run was driving me towards a greater goal. And that every run would be worth it, regardless of how I felt during it.

“I feel better prepared than I have felt before”

I have run further than I have ever run before in a week and in a month. I have clocked up almost as many miles now as I did for the whole of last year. I have run five days a week solidly since back in March. I know what it takes to get round a marathon course and this time around, I feel better prepared than I have felt before.

Not all of the training was enjoyable of course, some of it has been a total slog, but I will be eternally grateful to my friends who have run with me on Saturdays through the summer and autumn – Susan and Cara – and my regular long Sunday run training partner, Jeanette, who will run the race with me.

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Running with Cara, Susan and Jeanette

Marathon training is a bit of a solo pursuit and the majority of my runs have been on my own, but every pace with my friends was easier than every pace I ran on my own. Every conversation we had helped distract me from the physical difficulties I may have been going through at that particular time. Every hill we ran up we ran up together, encouraging each other to get to the top. Every rainy or windy morning, the simple fact we were running together made sure we turned up and got each other around the course As Susan pointed out to me fairly recently, “if you want to run fast, run on your own. If you want to run far, run with friends”.

Covid-19 restrictions in Scotland have meant that – in recent weeks – I have only been able to run with one of these friends at a time (the picture of me with Cara and Susan was from back in the summer). The simple pick me up when we have been able to run together gave me extra impetus to do the runs on my own.

“No run is wasted”

Those solo runs have given me the mental strength to get through the tough times. Everything combines when it comes to running a marathon. No run is wasted, in fact in many ways I always feel the terrible ones count more! Every inch of every mile has counted and I will be supremely grateful to all of them for how they have helped get me to where I am now.

I also got another boost this week when I received my medal for the recent Marathon in a Day Challenge which I did with a number of virtual friends last month. This was running as part of a team of five people to cover the marathon distance in one twenty four hour period. So I ran (virtually) with four other people who I only know through running groups on social media. Not the same as running with real friends I know, but such groups can be really supportive too.

The Marathon In a Day medal added to my collection

As my training winds down, reducing in both distance covered and in time spent pounding the pavements, this could have lead me to begin to think too much about the challenge of next weekend. Thankfully, this week has been extremely busy at work, so I have had little time to ponder exactly how I am going to handle getting around twenty six point two miles of Aberdeen next Sunday morning.

“That is how crazy marathon training is”

I have continued to run of course, sticking the training plan and running four times this week as usual, with tomorrow’s long run to come. The ironic thing is that by the end of this week I will have run around thirty miles in total. And you know what? That feels like I have barely been out of the house this week. That is how crazy marathon training is. Back in the Spring I began to aim to cover a marathon distance each week and that felt like a stretch. After three months of training, running thirty miles – with the furthest distance of one run being only nine miles – feels like having the week off!

This period of tapering is crucial to allowing your body to relax and recover from the rigours of training and the relentless miles to be in the best possible shape to complete the distance. At times it feels like my fitness is just draining away, but I know that is the demons in my head playing tricks.

One more week to go.

I Travel

There is one aim in a marathon. And that is to finish. But there are many targets; many things to achieve to get you across the line. And last weekend represented a significant one. I completed the hardest part of the training schedule and now the countdown to the race is really on.

My first marathon was in Stirling in Scotland two and half years ago. If I am honest, I was pretty naive about what was involved when I signed up for it but the experience from training for that race, and my second in Barcelona last year has taught me so much. It has taught me a lot about running, but more importantly, it has also taught me a lot about myself.

“how hard they have had to work”

When you see people on TV lined up at the mass start of a race – like the London Marathon or the Great North Run – you do not realise how hard they have had to work to get simply to that point. The sheer concept that a marathon is not twenty six point miles, but it is the hundreds of miles you run just to get you there really had not occurred to me until I began to train for that first race in Stirling.

Yes I had trained for races before but marathon training was so far off the scale in comparison to what I had done previously that it was clear I had underestimated what was really involved. This time around, I have no intention of making the same error. That is why, for the best part of the last three months, I have been running five days a week at distances of up to more than fifty miles a week.

“struggling all week, feeling really tired”

Last weekend marked the longest run of the training programme for the Dublin marathon. I had been struggling all week, feeling really tired, which was not exactly ideal preparation for what was going to be around a twenty three mile run on Sunday morning. And then there was the weather. The forecast for the early part of the run was pretty grim but it was due to improve and as we would be out for the best part of four hours we would get the benefit later. As with my other long runs, I was doing this one with my friend Jeanette.

Well the weather did not disappoint. When we met up at 7am to start it was howling a gale and absolutely tipping it down, but I guess this is what you sign up for when you register for a race. You cannot choose the weather on race day so you might as well get used to running in the worst of it.

The first ninety minutes or so were pretty grim but as we headed into the city centre of Aberdeen the weather began to ease, as forecast, with the wind dropping and the rain moving from incessant to showers. It was a tough run though. We were layered up, wet and now a bit hot. As we got to about eighteen miles, with the toughest bit of the run still to come, we were both feeling it. But we stuck at it and ground it out. We got through it.

The end of the three mile hill was in sight as we hit 23 miles

There was one important thing about that run. Getting to the end. I had already run twenty eight miles last week before I even started last Sunday’s training. As it was, the Sunday run topped out at twenty four and a half miles, due to a couple of detours on the way. I ran fifty two miles last week. My furthest ever. And at the end I still felt I could have carried on.

A couple of people have asked me why I did not. At twenty four and half miles, why not add on less than two more and get to the marathon distance? It did cross my mind, bu I want to keep that special achievement for the big day itself. Only two more weeks to go now.

“you enter ‘maranoia'”

Normally the end of the bulk of the training regime and the start of the taper – that part of training where you ease things back before the effort of the race – means you enter “maranoia”. This is a phase where your brain plays tricks on you and every minor twinge becomes a career ending injury and every small doubt looms large in your brain to convince you that you have not done enough training and that you are going to struggle to even get to halfway.

Thankfully this week I have avoided this by running with my friend Susan on Monday – I was so stiff but the run really helped loosen off my legs – and then going away on holiday for a few days in the UK. As someone who usually travels a huge amount for work and runs when I am away, it has been hard to have only run in the North East of Scotland for the past seven months. But I realise this is a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. However, my wife and I traveled to the south-west of England for a much delayed and anticipated trip and I took advantage to get in a couple of runs.

First we went to Bath, so I went out early morning to run around some of the sights of the historic city. You have no idea how it freshens the mind and the approach to a run when you go somewhere you do not know. The miles just drift by as you appreciate the opportunity to experience a city you are unfamiliar with. I realise how lucky I have been to enjoy this.

After Bath we traveled to Lympstone in Devon – via a stop at Stonehenge. I had no plans to run while in Lympstone, but we went for a walk near the hotel and discovered it led directly to the Ex Estuary Trail which stretches for miles along the mouth of the river. So, again in the early morning, I went out and followed the trail down to Exmouth and then back up towards Lympstone itself.

It was a gorgeous, if chilly morning, to get in a few more miles. Tapering means my mileage has really cut back this week, but it does not mean not running at all. While running in Bath was about buildings and architecture, running in Lympstone was about enjoying the views of nature. It was a spectacular morning to be out in a fabulous location.

Such great views of the Ex Estuary

The key thing from this week is that I feel mentally refreshed and renewed. Being able to get away has been great for my running, but given everything else that has gone on this year, it has also been great for my head. A lovely break with my wife, a chance to explore new places and to eat and drink and relax. I fully realise how fortunate I have been.

Now I am back home, it is back in to the training routine once more. On Saturday I went out for a four mile run and decided to inject a bit of pace. One thing recently I have been conscious of is becoming very one paced, so every so often I try and remind myself that my legs and my lungs are capable of going at a higher rate.

Tomorrow, it is a half marathon on the plan. The pace will be easy but the distance is still the distance and the challenge remains undimmed. Two weeks to go.

Further

If training preparation for a marathon is all about learning to run with tired legs in order to replicate the last few miles of a race. Then all my runs this week have ticked that box big time!!!

To be frank, this week I have felt absolutely shattered. This should really have come as no surprise as in September I clocked up more miles in a month than I had ever run before – one hundred and ninety five – and four runs of more than half marathon distance.

Last week was the first time I had ever run fifty miles (80 km) in a week. September was the first month where I had ever run more than three hundred kilometres. No wonder I am tired. But as I still have one more long run to go before tapering, I need to keep going.

My training calendar for September

After my quick 10 km run last Saturday as part of a team effort for the Marathon in a Day challenge – Sunday was the first time I was bidding to run more than twenty miles since I ran the Barcelona Marathon last year. This run went really well. Starting early in the morning with my friend Jeanette it was another perfect day for running and while we were both tired by the end as we reached more than twenty one miles, I think we both felt that on that day, had we had to keep going, we could have got to the magical full marathon distance.

But as with everything with marathon training, it just continues to demand more. The other thing about this week was my work commitments kind of got in the way of my plans, so I had to rework when I could run. Normally Monday is one of my rest days, but I ended up having to run on Monday in order to stick to the planned mileage.

This is where I need to make a confession. The runs this week have brought me no pleasure. They have simply been a means to an end; a necessary evil to get through just to keep things going. I deliberately chose what I would call functional routes – just ones where all I was counting was the distance. There was no desire to run anywhere nice. There was no requirement to enjoy things. I was running on my own and just clocking off the miles, ticking off the run and moving on.

“some runs… just have to be done”

Now you may question why would you run, if running is not for enjoyment? I think that is perfectly valid, but the simple answer, for me anyway, is that the demands which marathon training place on you mean that there are some runs which just have to be done. You just need to do them to ensure that when you get to the day itself, you are fully ready for what lies ahead.

It is also about the mental challenge. And this week has been a mental test. I have felt that I have had to drag myself round. Any pace I had has disappeared and all I have been doing is looking at my watch for the distance and concentrating on getting to the end. Monday’s run done, it was on to Tuesday. Tuesday’s run done, it was on to Thursday.

At least on Tuesday night there was a brief nice sunset

On Thursday, I had to run early morning. It was another pure slog. The sheer effort to get up, get out (at 6am) and then haul myself round for 10 km while it was still dark was actually pretty mind numbing. But you know what? Getting it done meant so much. Getting through all the runs this week have meant so much. Just because I got them done. Again, I proved to myself what I can achieve. Yes the runs were slow as anything but that was irrelevant. I got through the week, did what I had to do, and can move on to the next challenge.

I did get a nice boost this week; a reward for September’s efforts to rack up more than three hundred kilometres in thirty days. Most of the challenges I sign up for are for the challenge itself, but this one, while partly about that, was much more about one thing. An awesome bit of bling being offered for completing the Great Wall challenge.

It has now been added to my medal hanger, another piece of recognition on this strangest of years where it has been virtual running rather than real races which have been key to staying motivated.

One thing about my training over the past three months is that the weather has been very kind. Though the temperatures started warm back in June and July, as it has cooled down through Autumn, this has suited me much more as I prefer running when it is cooler. But as I head into this weekend, significant rain has descended on Scotland and Saturday’s run was extremely wet. However, one key thing happened on this run. As I got to around four mile distance and the rain battered down, I began to feel better. By the end, yes I was soaking wet and yes, the weather was awful, but I actually felt great.

Soaked right through after 10km on Saturday morning

The forecast for tomorrow is similar – posing challenges not just for me but for others running the virtual London Marathon, good luck to everyone doing that – but there is little point in being a fair weather runner if you want to complete a marathon. The weather on the day of the race will be the weather on the day of the race. There is nothing you can do about it.

So tomorrow it will be on with the wet weather gear, up while it is still dark and out we go for another beyond twenty mile run. It will represent the end of the hardest section of training and the start of tapering where I ease back the mileage as we head towards the race itself. I am so looking forward to getting this run done.