Let's start with a quick recap of the things that have gone wrong in my build up to the Berlin marathon: the broken toe; the lacerated shins while negotiating a French forest for an emergency loo- stop; the face plant on Tarmac while doing my long run last weekend; the previously unmentioned incident 5 days ago when I washed my beloved Sauconys and unwittingly put them too close to the Aga hot plate to dry resulting in a total and unrepairable meltdown of the sole of my left shoe; the emergency purchase from Amazon of a replacement pair with only two weeks left to run them in before the marathon. ...
Am I the unluckiest person in the world or simply congenitally incompetent and therefore unsuited to running a marathon? It was a question haunting my dreams over the past week until today. .. Because guess what? I set out to do the prescribed 14K MyAsics training run at the race-pace they had advised (based on my age and previous runs) of 8.05 perK which I have just about managed to maintain in previous runs. I set off at what I felt was my usual race pace and felt very comfortable and Was able to maintain it all through the run and even speed up as advised for the last K . To my utter amazement my Garmin showed an average pace of 7.25. The only thing I can put it down to is that I ran today around Yorks very flat racecourse and all on Tarmac while virtually all my training runs have been quite hilly and with substantial trail or grass portions. So maybe inadvertently I have been building up my stamina and speed during my previous runs? I mustn't get carried away but I can't help dwelling on the fact that Berlin is flat and on Tarmac! Maybe I will avoid the sweeper bus after all!