It has struck me...

I was walking out of the office to get my lunch today with one of my colleagues and telling him about my preparations for the marathon and how my last two 20 mile runs have gone. The breakdown went basically like this:

Miles 0 - 14 are pretty comfortable
Miles 14 - 17 are harder work but still reasonably comfortable
Mile 17 - 18 is harder work with thoughts of walking running through your head
Miles 18 - 20 are quite hard work and with encouragement you can keep going, but by yourself it's difficult not to walk at times

It then struck me that 12 months ago I was puffing when I walked up the 2 flights of stairs to our apartment. I considered walking up those 2 flights of stairs, after walking home from the DLR (an 8 minute walk), to be exercise! Now, though, I can comfortably run 14 miles and no real problems running 20 miles.

12 months ago I was in the worst shape of my life and in less than 3 weeks I'll be running a marathon!! I've lost around 17kg and am worrying more about how I'm going to afford replacing my suits and jackets than anything else...

Actually, that's not entirely true - I'm a little worried how I'm going to complete miles 20 - 26.2 having never run that far before. I've been quite knackered after 20 miles, but thanks to so many of you that have donated, both in the UK and Australia, together with the crowds and Mel + family/friends cheering me on, I'm confident I can finish it! Andy has also challenged me and is sponsoring me "per mile that I run", so I'm going to do my best not to walk any of it!!

Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you. I'm in wind-down mode now leading up to the marathon. Running a half-marathon this weekend, after which will only be doing 6 mile or so runs.

It's getting kinda exciting!! :o)