A win and a decision made!

4 weeks until the Boston Marathon! 

A decision has been made...

After a fantastic response from friends, family and athletes on blogger, strava and facebook, I have decided to do the sensible thing and stick to the plan. I was rather overwhelmed by the amount of people who care enough to read my blog, contemplate my dilemma and write a response. While all advice was useful and thought provoking, I've decided to air of the side of caution and focus on the responses from the 'experts' aka those who have ran marathons and especially those who have ran the Boston Marathon or those who themselves are already a part of the infamous Sub3 club. I've reflected on the fact that 3:05 is an amazing time in itself and would be a huge achievement. I therefore plan on starting off at around 7min miles (or maybe slightly less as the first 16miles is downhill). I'm then going to try and sustain that pace for the undulating section of the course (miles 16 -22). If (by some miracle) at mile 22 I feel good, I'll pick it up on the final downhill section. 

My aims: 

1) To enjoy the race 

2) To get sub 3:15 

3) To get sub 3:05 

Monday 20th March 2017  Last week of training before the taper!  

Up early (but not quite early enough for 6miles - sorry Maestro!) with John for a VERY slow 3 miles after the Gloucester 20 yesterday. 10:04 mm pace - ouch! 

Legs felt slightly better by the evening; 6 miles at 9:38mm pace. 

Tuesday 21st March 2017 - 100th day of Boston Training! 

Today was one of those mornings where I just couldn't wait to get outside. The sun was just rising, the sky blue and all the harbourside runners were in a good mood- lots of smiling, nodding and cheery 'Good mornings!' 3 miles at 9:43mm.

In the evening, I had a go at a GA run - managed a few miles at 8:30mm or less and averaged 8:49 for the 6 miles. Legs definitely not yet recovered from the exertions of the weekend. 

Wednesday 22nd March 2017

John had a special treat for me today - my very first Gluten Free hot cross buns! Obviously I had to earn them first (by running of course!). 3 miles at 9:31mm didn't feel too bad. The hot cross buns were delicious toasted with lots of butter! 

Wednesday evening is of course GWR club night. A fairly steady one as we've got a race tomorrow. 10 miles at 8:54mm. 

Thursday 23rd March 2017

This evening was the 7th race in the Weston Prom 5 mile series. I knew I wasn't in PB form because my legs were still feeling rather achy after Sunday's race. Adding to my this, the wind had picked up big time! My plan instead was to hang on to Bristol and West runner Julia for as long as possible. Julia is a fantastic runner (part of the Sub 3 club!) and someone I've been chasing down at prom for a while now! While warming up, I noticed that there was some unfamiliar female faces; Chepstow Harriers had clearly decided to try the prom out for size and I quickly spotted some speedy looking ladies that I needed to keep my eye on! 

The gun sounded and we were away. For the first section of the course, we had the wind behind us - I wasn't looking forward to turning around! I ran the first mile with John, the Maestro, Woody and Gary. We were gradually picking up the pace and over taking to get a good position. When we reached the first two ladies (Julia and a Chepstow lady - clearly my earlier observation was accurate!), I decided to stick with them rather than push on at this early stage and risk blowing up. John, the Maestro and Woody continued on ahead but Gary stuck with me. We ran with the ladies for a couple of miles - Gary was doing a fantastic job of being my wind-shield and I was feeling rather good so we picked the pace up around mile 4 and managed to lose both the other women! I was in first place and desperate not to loose it so focused on keeping good form and tried to pick up the pace as much as possible in the last mile. We managed to catch up with Woody; I thought I'd try and nip past him but he had clearly left something in the tank and took the lead back finishing really strongly - and very close to his PB. 

I was delighted to finish as first lady in a time of 30:59 and was rewarded with a bottle of wine!  

Friday 24th March 2017

Once again Friday morning got the better of us! Just 3 miles rather than the 6 that was on the plan -oops! 9:33mm - which after racing the day before, wasn't too bad. 

At lunchtime I took my running club out to the local woodlands where they manged 1.7 miles - a really great effort and the furthest a lot of them have ever ran. 

Saturday 25th March 2017

Parkrun day! 

After a rather heavy night of drinking, dancing and general merriment to celebrate our dear Chairwoman getting another year older, we weren't sure if we were going to make it...

However, clearly we are hardier than others (cough * the Woody's * cough!) and managed to drag ourselves out of bed! John even managed an extra few miles - I chose a few extra mins of sleep! 

We ran to Ashton Court and while we waited for the race briefing, bumped into James and Gen (Felicity's sister) who was visiting for the weekend. I knew that 22 miles were on the plan for tomorrow and, as it was Gen's first time at Ashton Court, I was more than happy to run with her and very much enjoyed her company up and down the hill. 

Sunday 26th March 2017 

I'm used to just doing what I'm told when it comes to running. Most people have noticed that there is very much a pecking order in our friendship group. The Maestro is obviously the undisputed leader. He passes detailed orders to John who relays some snippets of information to me which I then pass onto the Woodys and others! When told therefore that we were meeting at 7:45 in the morning, I was less than impressed - normally we meet at 8am (which is early enough) but 7:45 is just ridiculous! However, the Maestro explained to me that because the clocks were changing, 7:45 was actually 8:45 so I was in fact getting a lie in! That sounded pretty good to me so I set the alarm on my phone (which I knew would change the time automatically for me) for 6:45 confident in my knowledge that that would actually be 7:45! I wake up at 6:45 and actually don't feel to bad...that is until I walk into the kitchen and look at the time... 5:45!!!! WTF!!!! So I've actually lost an hour AND got up an hour earlier!!! Not impressed Maestro - I may have to start challenging your leadership! 

Despite being very unimpressed, we actually managed to arrive at the Maestro's on time (for possibly the first time of this whole marathon campaign!). The three of us headed off for the last long run before the marathon! 22 miles to do. 

The first 13 miles felt alright. I was keeping up with the boys and enjoying the sunshine. Around mile 14, everything started to get harder. My legs, hips and lower back hurt and I was slowing down rapidly. John and Marcus got smaller and smaller and further and further ahead - typically - at the very confusing section of the run that was full of twists and turns. I lost sight of the boys and played a bit of trial and error with the route! Luckily, I managed to spot them in the distance having not strayed too far from the route. They waited for me to catch up and kindly slowed down for the last 1/3 of the run. Although it was a really beautiful day, I'd had enough. I couldn't wait to hit the 22 mile mark and get this run done. 

22 miles at an average of 8:28mm - slower than I'd have liked but my legs were clearly still feeling the effects of the race on Thursday. 

Total mileage for the week = 73.8 

The last proper week of training DONE! It's taper time!