Date: April 16, 2024
Distance: 3.08 miles
Listened to: My own chat with Marissa discussing Sunday!
Last time out on this blog, I was full of moaning and self-loathing. Sorry about that gang. This time, I am full of fear and excitement. Even just downloading the TCS London Marathon 2024 app and clicking ‘Participant’ rather than ‘Supporter’ felt like a big moment!
Happy to report though that the left butt cheek pain has gone, and I have not had a cold (touching all the wood I can see right now) since then. I’ve still got a niggling right hamstring pain, but I have trained with this for the last few weeks, so a few more days will not make much difference. Hey, look at me being positive Caz!
To rewind a little, I had to miss my first 14-miler long run due to injury and my second three-week cold of 2024. I was upset, but I revised my plan to accommodate the set-back. I missed the next long run too and then ran 14 the following week up and down the Plym Valley Trail. From then on, I was back on track, adding two miles onto my long run for the next three weeks. The 16 went well. I retraced some of my Virtual London Marathon route from 2021 and bumped into fellow long-runners John (husband) and Marissa (lovely friend) along the way (see below).
The plan was to do the same, but add a little more on, for the 18-miler, but oh lordy, wasn’t that a bad day? I was stroppy and stoppy from the get-go. So much so, that I had to call in reinforcements in the form of my friend Abs, who ran the London Marathon last year.
I publicly thank her from the bottom of my heart for that support. I was a nightmare! She knows me so well that she understood exactly how to press my buttons. I wanted to quit, after a million walk breaks, at 14 miles. She reasoned that I was two miles from home and that we might as well try to run that and maybe a little bit more. She was so right. I finished my 18 – now officially known as the “Worst run ever” – and was glad I had done so. Think I would have bailed without my girl by my side.
Bored of the South Hams hills, a car-load of us headed to Exeter’s quayside for out longest run. I made myself feel positive but headed off the opposite direction to John and friends Kate and Darren to give myself some headspace after the 18-mile debacle. I also knew there was a toilet stop four miles into this route. Toilet planning is very important! I then followed in the Kingsbridge crew’s wake as I headed out towards Starcross (I am sure they were quaking in their trainers at the thought of me tracking them down) and noted a pub on the way out.
The flat was great, but it was devoid of resources in terms of somewhere to wee and fill up your water bottle. The pub came to my rescue on the return leg. My friend Cath (another London marathoner from last year) still tracks my phone after my marathon efforts from three years ago. She reported to our friends’ group chat the following: “Caz appears to be in a pub now?!?” This properly made me giggle and gave me a spring in my step. I bought an orange juice to offset the toilet use and water bottle re-fill and headed off to do my last five miles.
So longest run done. Whoop! Time to taper. Tapering is tough though. Not because I am worrying about running shorter distances, but because those shorter distances feel hard! The nine-miler the following weekend felt super effortful, as did last Friday’s six. This is when I started to panic. Well, started panicking even more! I know the marathon is going to be hard; I just don’t want it to feel too hard too early on.
Just five days to go now and I am eating everything in sight, trying to do easy activities and trying not to get too stressed! Please keep everything you have crossed for me that I have a good day. I truly want to enjoy the experience, soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the flat, hug my friends who have come to support the gang of us that are doing it, maybe meet a few fellow runners along the way (see team manager Cat and head coach Susie from Exeter Chiefs Women below), and raise shedloads of cash for the RFU Injured Players Foundation (supported by none other than Jonny Wilkinson). Thank you to everyone who has sponsored us. We are on our way to £5k!
Then I am looking forward to enjoying guilt-free wine, not having my every waking thought dominated by running, getting the job done, showing the menopause who’s boss, achieving this dream that I never thought was even possible for someone like me, and wearing my medal for about a month!
Running for Dad 