April 2011

[marathondan]

Week 18 – 1 week to go

Well, April has come around again and it’s marathon week.

I’ve ticked off my final fartlek, tempo session and long run (8 miles). For the first time, the Marathon Talk podcast didn’t last the duration of the long run. Episode 64 included part 2 of a very interesting interview with Jeff Galloway. Many of you may be familiar with his run / walk technique, but it’s new to me. I know he’s an evangelist, but it was a pretty compelling talk and I’m tempted to try his methods in training and racing once Brighton is out of the way. The emphasis is on remaining injury-free and continuing running into mature years, both of which may be of interest to certain forum members.

I tried on the outfit last night for the final time; it’s feeling quite light and comfortable so I’m going to try and pace myself for a 4:30 finish. I’ve no idea how that will go in practice, if everything goes well it should be doable but I’ve only run for 10 minutes in this thing so there could be all sorts of unforeseen issues. As well as the normal drinks, energy snacks and Vaseline, I’ll be carrying a roll of gaffer tape in case of structural failure.

Just a couple of jogs planned for this week, some touching up of paint and application of logos, final packing list and off we go!

I did have a mad idea yesterday that the top of the costume would be the perfect location for a camera. Install one up there, set to take a still every 5 sec or so, and I would have a time lapse movie of the entire race from an excellent vantage point. I even wondered if the race organisers would be interested. But I don’t think there are compact cameras around that would reliably keep snapping away for 5 hours and store 3600 photos without running out of battery.