Twice in three days!

13 June

Wow! Just wow! So, in the back of my head this week I wondered if I could do two 40+k runs within a few days of each other. Wasn't sure, but today I did. I set off at 7am and did 20.5k before meeting Tom, my running buddy and father of one of my daughter's best friends, at the school drop off. I'd been off down by the river pootling along and finding it quite (very) tough to maintain 4hr marathon pace after Tuesday's 40k effort. After meeting Tom at 9am he started filling my head with his leftist, vaguely Marxist ideology and I'm not sure if it was that or that my massive breakfast had stopped being digested and was actually fuelling me but, off we went!

Tom's route looped us up through Crystal Palace and over to Streatham Common and then Tooting Common before heading back towards Dulwich. I started to experience what I call the "smooth burn" when you get a lovely sense of invincibility through the 30k mark and I didn't need to take on any food for the whole run, just water at a few fountains on the run. Our pace actually quickened, although as I went past 40k it did start to get a little harder.

So, I've learned a few things today. One - don't be afraid of fuelling hard and running uncomfortable - it comes good in the end, even if takes an hour or more. Two - starting slow, or even very slow, can come good: on Tuesday I ran 40k in 3hr45mins, and today (Thursday) I ran 42k in 3hr49mins. Three - and most importantly - having someone else along for the run makes a massive difference. Having Tom there meant I could leave pacing and directions up to him when I was struggling. I could just focus on breathing and my running action and slowly things got better. When he picked me up I was a mess, but after 10k running next to him I was coming good again. It was a pretty incredible experience to find that my best 10k in a marathon distance were from 30-40k! I couldn't have done that on my own.

After Tom left me at my place he went on and completed his own sub 4hr marathon - totally awesome effort. Hoping he can come along with me for the big run - I'm sure he and everyone else who can support me on the day will make the difference between success and failure. I can't do this on my own... nor do I want to.