So, two weeks today I will (hopefully) be sitting in a bar in Barcelona, sipping a cold beer and eating tapas, having just finished the Barcelona Marathon. After January seemed to last approximately 86 days rather than the traditional 31, February has flown by. February last year was my nemesis- I celebrated my 30th birthday and started a new job, both of which conspired to mean that I ran a grand total of 5 times in February…. not ideal. Compare this to 2018, and I set a new PB for distance covered in a month in January with a total of 78.5 miles run, and am currently on 68.6 miles for February.
Everything has shifted forward a bit this year, with Barcelona being 4 weeks before Brighton was in 2017. That meant that my final long run fell on the same weekend that a lot of my club were doing the Brecon to Cardiff Ultra, a crazy 44 mile trail run. Having done a pretty well paced 20 miler two weeks before (11.46 minute miles compared to 12.52 minute miles on the same route last year), I was happy for this one to be all about the time on feet and just getting the miles in, so I offered to run with a couple of people for the final half of the race to help them home. We spent the first half of the day on support duties, which essentially involved standing on top of a giant hill being battered by snow and sideways winds- it was great to see everyone running past and giving support, but not the best preparation for a 22 mile training run!
I warmed up pretty quickly once we got going, and felt pretty comfortable for most of the run, despite the persistent snow and a very muddy section which nearly resulted in me losing a shoe! All in all, it was the perfect final long run, with great company and getting to take advantage of supporters on the route, feed stations etc.
Last weekend I did Llanelli Half Marathon- the idea was to use it as a training run, test out kit, have a bit of practice under race conditions and just enjoy running somewhere different with a bit more going on than the confused looking sheep that are our usual running companions! I really enjoyed this race- the conditions were perfect for me- not too warm, not really any rain and a light breeze, and the route was a simple out and back, mainly straight, no hills and pretty quiet. I much prefer races when I can just get my head down and disappear into my own world- I struggled in Brighton due to the sheer volume of people in some areas, lots of whom were screaming at you. It sounds really ungrateful as obviously it’s great that people have come out to support you, but sometimes, especially when I’m tired and hurting, I find it a bit much to deal with.
As I started out I kept thinking ‘I’m going too fast’ and trying to pull it back- trust me, this is a very rare phenomenon for me- but I was just enjoying it too much. I have a new widget on my Garmin that shows predicted finishing time over your set distance, and it was flashing up at somewhere between 2.09 and 2.11 for most of the race. I knew there was absolutely no way that would happen, it would be more than 10 minutes off my current PB…. I kept being absolutely convinced there was no chance until I was at the top of the finishing funnel at 2.09.14, and then decided that I would finish in under 2.10 if it killed me- head down and I crossed the line in 2.09.52. Nearly 12 minutes off my previous PB, which I battled so hard for in Cardiff back in October. I was absolutely elated, had a little cry to myself on the way home in the car, and proceed to go out for the club curry night that evening and get extremely drunk off about 3 mini bottles of prosecco…..
When I compare how I feel now to how I felt two weeks before Brighton last year I feel like a different person- I am genuinely excited for Barcelona, I know I’ve put the work in, I’ve lost over a stone, massively cut down on drinking and I’m ready to enjoy every second of this race. Last year I was the heaviest I’ve ever been thanks to using running as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted, feeling guilty for not hitting all the runs in my training plan, and nursing a slight foot injury due to trying to do a 20 mile run after having barely run for 3 weeks.
I’m going to spend the next 2 weeks easing back on training, maintaining the healthy eating, drinking all the water and trying not to get injured! I’m not going to set myself a target time- I did that in Brighton and then spent the whole time beating myself up for being off my target pace. Llanelli proved that I run my best when I don’t set any expectations, and have the added bonus of actually enjoying myself too!
Wish me luck guys…. Barcelona, I’m ready for you- even got the outfit sorted!
Running on Prosecco 