Go home, And show no sign of fear.

Four weeks to go and everything seems to be coming together for getting to the starting line in reasonable nick. I’ve certainly got running distance on roads at about the same time on a Sunday as the London marathon ingrained. I ran my third twenty mile race on successive Sundays at East Hull and for the third time everything went more or less according to plan. I was aiming for 8 minute miles for as long as possible and then going for a burst at the end just to see if I could pick the pace up. Got caught up in the hurly burly at the start and found myself alongside Michael Hern from Pudsey Pacers. He was aiming to run the first five at 7:45, then the next five at 7:30, the third five at 7:15 and the final five as fast as possible. That was too swift for me, but tagged along with him for the first five, which seemed to go in no time. I slowed it down a bit and then fell in behind a group of three who were running at about 8 minute pace and chatting away quite happily. They provided a useful windbreak for the section of the course when the wind picked up and was coming straight at us. I pushed on for the final four miles and came in at 2:36:19 according to my Garmin.

Preparation for the Sunday run was less than ideal again. I ran a little faster at parkrun than was sensible and then hung around to cheer on the kids who were running 2k in the park. A dash across the Pennines for lunch and back for the live performance of Frankenstein’s Wedding at Kirkstall Abbey. For those of you not used to performing live on national TV, I can confirm that it’s not as glamorous as you might think and there’s a load of hanging around. We were standing around for four hours gradually getting colder with the bar, food and toilet facilities inaccessible. If I’d put on an overcoat, packed the hip flask and borrowed a colostomy bag then it would have been an excellent evening as the event itself was top class. It really was a marvellous night for a moondance. A fish supper from Midgeley’s was probably not a feature of anybody’s list of how best to prepare for a twenty mile run, but we were famished.

So where have my three twenty mile races got me? I know I can run twenty miles and not die. From Trimpell, I know I can run twenty miles at faster than marathon pace. From Spen I know I can run twenty four miles at nine minute miles and have plenty left for the remaining 2.2 miles. Nothing much new from East Hull, but the knowledge that I can overcome my in-built Yorkshireness and eschew the free Lucozade gels (which are truly horrible) for the bought-with-hard-earned-money Torq gels (which are delicious). I can highly recommend both the Rhubarb & Custard and the Black Cherry Yorghurt flavours. They also do Strawberry Yoghurt, Orange & Banana, Forest Fruits (with Guarana) and Banoffee (with Guarana). I have no idea what Guarana is, but I’ll give it a try.