Just one more day to the big event. My hamstring is feeling better, although it's obviously still not perfect. I've decided to run a race pace of somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 minute miles. Its quite a broad target pace but I've got to go out and run how I feel and respond to what my body is telling me. If I go out intent on running 6:30s and my leg doesn't feel up to it then it could spell disaster. I need to run comfortably fast. I don't want to push it too much and get injured but at the same time I don't want to take it easy and finish with the feeling I could've done so much better.
Its always difficult to know exactly what you're capable of in a half or full marathon. When I set my half marathon best in 2003 I'd just about given up hope on cracking 1h 30m. My training hadn't been as good as I'd hoped and I gave myself a target mile pace of around 7:05, which is about 1h 33m. However, when I got into the race everything just fell into place. I zoomed along without really pushing it and finished in what was a then unbelievable 1:26:33. The following year my training went better and I was hopeful of improving on that time. The fact that my 4 month old son woke up 7 times during the night didn't help my performance on the day. I set out strong but never really felt comfortable and although I was on target all the way up to the 10 mile point it fell apart in the closing stages and I finished in 1:28:42.
I’ve prepared well this past week, been sensible with my injury, and eaten well. Lots of pasta and fruit and no sweets at all. I’ve also steered clear of both alcohol and caffeine for the month of September without too much trouble. Now there’s nothing left to do but pack my bag and get to the start line in plenty of time.
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