6 weeks to go...

It is getting ever closer, but after this week it seems like I might just do this and enjoy it too!

The week started badly, I woke up on Monday morning and felt awful. Dizzy, hot, cold, generally just ill. So that was me done for the day, after a couple of glasses of water I was straight back to bed and slept through until the afternoon. Between dozing in the afternoon I watched large amounts of soothing 'One Tree Hill' streamed over the interweb and took it nice and easy.

By Tuesday I was feeling a little delicate and tired but back to normal. But now for the tough part - I was supposed to go for a long run on Monday night, I have a training schedule to keep up with and now I'm behind. Tuesday was a low day, I was wondering if it was ever going to come together - would I ever want to run the whole distance? Would I even be able to? It was a really low point and I was thinking that I'd never make it.

By Wednesday I realised that I have no choice. I can't pull out now, and I am capable of doing this, I just need to nuture my confidence and train it in the same way I've been training my body. I started thinking of all the inspirational people that have done marathons against the odds and how I, as a perfectly healthy person, will be able to do this as long as I put my head down and get through this final push. I started to give myself little pep talks whenever I had a negative thought - of course I am going to run this, yes I will do it, and I will enjoy it!

To be honest, at first none of this helped on Wednesday night as I embarked on my 17.5 mile run. It is a long way, and after one lap (3 miles) of Regent's Park I was just feeling like rubbish. But I kept on. I thought about all the positive things I had thought about all day. I thought about the fact that I was better prepared today, I had a snack at around 4pm and it had fuelled me, and for the first time I bought gel packs with me for an extra boost on the way. And everything started to fall into place. I gradually fell into my pace and the next two hours flew by! The gels worked wonders, they taste very strange, but once you take them with some water they are great. It was hard towards the end but then it was 17.5 miles!

After my little talk to myself (not like out loud, I haven't been sent totally mad just yet) I have been in a totally different frame of mind. Now I think about the marathon and think about running it, being comfortable and finishing it, whereas before I was just full of dread.

I went for a lunchtime run today, round the park at a bit of a pace and up and down Primrose Hill twice. I got back to the office full of the joys of spring, I feel like a real runner now, sad as though that sounds, getting into the training is just really motivating me to move forward.

And so... 6 weeks to go, in fact almost nearly 5... 3 more long runs... lots more Primrose Hill and sprinting up and down and Mil Fit and then on 13th April - it is D-day! Bring it on!