I can sense the concern of many of my friends and family at the fact it’s that time again…
I’m about to run another marathon.
I feel it too; I promised myself during those torturous miles at the Brighton Marathon in April that I wouldn’t put myself in that position ever again… yet here we are.
It’s now under 48 hours before there is a distinct possibility I’ll experience many of those very same thoughts and feelings that broke me on the south coast.
No-one ever truly knows if they’re ‘ready’ for what’s ahead in a marathon; you know it’s going to be hard and there are going to be some really tough moments.
How I react will ultimately define how the race goes, but then again, what is success when it comes to Sunday?
I’ve been open in saying I would love to go under 3:30 but they’re just numbers, a target to base my training around so it doesn’t feel quite so aimless.
Perhaps the real success is being brave/silly enough to put myself in this position again.
It would have been far easier to shelve any marathon plans and give those scars more time to fade, run lesser distances that I’m comfortable at, achieving times I wouldn’t have dreamt of when I started running seven years ago.
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But it’s the jeopardy, the unknown, that keeps me coming back for more. There’s part of me that wants to feel like I did in Brighton to prove to myself that I can handle those circumstances better this time around, that I’ve learned from it.
I’m not the best runner and I’m certainly not the fastest.
I find it bizarre and humbling that there will be people that look up to me in how I’ve improved but conversely there will also be individuals wondering why a Joe Average runner like myself takes it all so seriously and gets the coverage I do.
But whatever camp you’re in, hopefully you can see that I’m doing the best I can to keep moving forward, literally.
It’s been a fairly chilled week where I’ve tried to get away from running a little. I’ve toned down the watching of YouTube videos, read non-running related content and tried to keep my mind away from Sunday’s race. I know my plan and it’s just about executing that as well as I can now.
The logistics of getting the Armstrong clan over to a different country is also enough to keep my wife, Alison, and I occupied (‘Mummy/Daddy, how many toys can I bring?’).
In the most predictable of circumstances, both my children have been a little under the weather this week, so I’ve resorted to popping vitamin C tablets like smarties.
Whilst I feel nervous when I do let my mind wander to Sunday, I also feel a sense of gratitude that I get to run in another one of the marathon majors. It’s not often you get to be in the same race as the greatest marathon runner of all time in Eliud Kipchoge, is it?
In some ways, he will be feeling exactly the same way that I, and many of the other near 48,000 runners are: anxious, excited, ready.
His definition of success will be very different to mine, but whatever happens, there’s something else that bonds Kipchoge and most of the running community.
Whatever happens, we’ll be back for more.
See you on the other side.
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