purplecat: Picture of purplecat running the Great North 10K (General:Running)
[personal profile] purplecat
I've packed. I have to collect my bib number, timing chip and kit bag from the expo tomorrow before 5pm (the instructions are very clear about this). My plan is to get a train down to London tomorrow and make my way to the expo before seeking out my hotel. Since I need to be able to fit all my possessions into a London Marathon kit bag, I'm travelling light. My entertainment for the evening will be my phone and ebook reader. Mind you, I'm still reading fanfic I loaded onto the ebook reader in January so I have hopes it will sustain me.

The week has been characterised by short easy runs (even the long run, at 8 miles, was shorter than the long runs I attempted before training started), leaving me free to worry about other things namely:

Nutrition: I have read a lot about carbo-loading, modern carbo-loading, carbo-loading myths and so on. As far as I can make out the trick is to have your liver well stocked with glycogen. As I understand it (and I didn't do O' level biology though B. did and G. is currently (assuming GCSEs are the same thing)), when exercising one burns through one's glycogen reserves and then start burning body fat (and at the moment when the glycogen reserve runs out you hit "the wall"). You can manufacture glycogen from anything, but carbohydrates are good since they pack a lot of calories into relatively little space. Anyway, I have been putting on weight steadily all week based on an enthusiastic diet of making sure I actually eat a carbohydrate rich food with every meal (plus one cinnamon roll), so I assume I'm OK on the glycogen front. Of course, I also want to avoid having too much solid stuff in my gut on actual race day (because I know things will start to shut down around 18 miles) and I will be away from home so with moderately less control over food. Yo Sushi is apparently offering free meals to runners. Not sure if that will help.

DLR Strike: In order to get to the expo to acquire bib, timing chip and kit bag, one has to take the Docklands Light Railway. This is a problem if it is on strike. I looked this up and found that the nearest Underground station to the Excel centre is only a 20 minute walk away and, well, if I can't walk for 20 minutes on Saturday things do not look good for running 26 miles on Sunday. So my plan was to walk - particularly once the London Marathon emailed me to say there would be a sign-posted walking route. However it looks like the strike has now been called off. I have an ancient Oyster Card with (or so the sticker I have put on it says) £3.70 credit, however I gather one can use contactless payment these days so the Oyster Card will be remaining at home. On race day my start line is at Blackheath which does not involve the DLR. Also I think I get free travel on race day if I have my bib with me.

The Heat: On Tuesday the official marathon line was all "who knows what will happen on Sunday, long term weather forecasts are tricksy beasts". By yesterday this had morphed to "hottest marathon on record. Do you really need to run in fancy dress?". They are a bit calmer now. The advice is to be more modest about your pacing goals. Now my goal was basically 7mph for the first two hours then see how its going and aim to come in under 4 hours. As far as I can tell looking at miscellaneous weather apps, it is no longer likely to be totally scorching on marathon day - the high appears to be about 21C, and rather lower when one takes wind chill into account - and that won't be reached until 2 hours into the run so I figure the plan remains the same: 7mph for two hours and then see how things are going.

Shelter phoned me during the week to find out how I was doing, which was mildly alarming. I feel mildly fraudulent about Shelter given that, if I had a charity place, I would have had to raise £2,000. Instead I seem to be getting the full "running for Shelter" perks for a 10th of that. Not that they won't be welcome. I think I'll be on my own at the end of the race and knowing there is a pub/restaurant nearby with folk who will help out (or at least supply massages) is reassuring.

KM run this week: 30.9
KM run in 2018: 616




While raising money for charity is not my motivation for participation, it is a big part of the London Marathon. Shelter have bribed me with a T-shirt and the promise of a post-race massage. People have been incredibly generous already, but you can donate here should you feel so inclined.
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purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)
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