Nerves v Excitement

Last night I went out with the Jog Scotland group and it was great. Instead of the usual intervals or hills session, we just did a 6-mile run. The sun was shining and there was hardly any wind - not conditions I'm used to. I found myself with a group of slightly-too-fast runners, and only just kept up for the first few miles. But when we got to mile 4, I knew I could maintain the pace (it was downhill around there which helped), and I kept up with them to the end. We did 6 miles in 53 minutes, which meant my overall pace was only a little outside my 10K PB! Once I've got this pesky marathon out of the way, I'm definitely going to be looking for some faster PBs on shorter distances...

It was a beautiful route too - mainly off-road, through park and trees, past a lake with some ducks and ducklings - very picturesque, and a place I'd never run before. Incredible how you don't know what's on your own doorstep sometimes.

This morning I had another sports massage, which was good. It didn't hurt too much, but I could feel which areas were tight - most of my left side, which may be why I had some calf trouble in my left leg. My legs felt tired afterwards, but not sore. I've got another one booked for next week, so I'm hoping this will get my poor legs into good condition before I pummel them into the ground.

A few people have asked me if I'm starting to get nervous yet. So far, I have been feeling pretty excited, but today I had my first panicky wave of 'OhmyGodwhatamIdoing?'! I presume this is normal behaviour? The strange thing about this race is that everything after 20 miles is unknown and unpredictable. I just don't know how my body - and maybe worse my mind - will react to going on another 6 miles. I'm (sort of) looking forward to finding out though...

Look what came in the post today!!