London Marathon 2007

I have done quite a bit since my last post.

Last wednesday I started by doing the Woodnewton, Apethorpe, Nassington circuit. My legs were very tired as by the end I had clocked up nearly 35 miles in 6 days. Two of the sessions had been hard - the frostbite and the track session. This was followed by a Clive Tuke endurance session.

Therfore by Thursday morning I was very tired. My initial idea was to do the turbo session in the evening and not venture out for a run. However Thursday saw the worst winter storm for nearly 20 years pass over the UK. By 1:30pm the electricity had gone and I was forced to spend the afternoon reading. Had I not been so tired I think that I would have gone out for a run in the wind just to see what it was like. By the time the turbo session came around there was still no electricity, so it did not go ahead.

Friday was my rest day and despite the fact that I had done nothing the day before I decided to keep it as a rest day. Bliss!

Saturday started very early. D4 the dog started barking in the middle of the night, which woke me - 2AM. I was quite excited about the impending Rutland Water challenge and could not get back to sleep. I ended up listening to the world service until about 4:30am when I finally got out of bed. The wind was howling outside and the conditions did not seem ideal. Between Nassington and Apethorpe, the rain came down so hard I had to slow as the wipers could not keep up with the volume of water. Fortunately by the time I got to Rutland Water, the rain had abated a bit. Rupert was sitting in his Land Rover relishing the thought of doing something a bit off the wall. Robin turned up, followed by Jonathan and Julia. We all got togged up and started on our way. Jonathan, Julia and me on foot going clockwise round the lake. Rupert and Robin going anti clockwise on bike. The wind was sill very strong and the rain reasonably hard. Once or twice I had negative thoughts about stopping, but you just put the thoughts behind you and keep going.

The Rutland Water circuit is quite hard - up and down all the way. It's difficult to get into a rythm. After about 40 minutes we rounded the west end of the water and our direction changed. Also there were a few steady miles where the track was flatish. Rupert and Robin passed us just as we were about to cross under the railway line.