"London Marathon 2025: Getting in Shape Again for the Ultimate Running Challenge!"

Morning Drama and the Case of the Ignored Alarm After yesterday's osteopath appointment, I had no idea what to expect when I got out of bed this morning. Would it be pleasure? Would it still be pain? Or would it be that peculiar middle ground where you can’t decide if you’re healed or just temporarily distracted? To begin with, I ignored my alarm for fifteen minutes, which immediately introduced an element of chaos to the morning. Nothing quite gets the heart pumping like realising you’ve lost a quarter of an hour before the day has even started. I sprang out of bed—well, rolled out gingerly—and made myself a coffee before heading off to Rochester. A Surprise at The Math School It wasn’t until I arrived at The Math School that I realised something miraculous: my back was not hurting as much. There was still some soreness, but the searing pain running from my back through my hip into my leg had—dare I say it—disappeared. It was an unexpectedly excellent start to the day. However, my...

A Rocky Start Today began with all the grace of a giraffe on roller skates. Sleep and I were not on speaking terms last night, thanks to an ill-advised Dr Pepper at Five Guys. Caffeine and I have an understanding—specifically, that I should avoid it after midday unless I want to spend the night engaging in a staring contest with the ceiling. Every half hour, I was jolted awake, as though my body had a secret agreement to check if the alarm had gone off yet. When it finally did—at 5am—it was, unsurprisingly, unwelcome. Dragging myself out of bed, I got ready for my planned morning run in Rochester, only to be met with weather that could best be described as ‘atmospheric catastrophe.’ Running in the rain is one thing, but running in whatever that was felt like a direct challenge from the universe. Begrudgingly, I postponed my run until after work—something I rarely enjoy but had to accept, as I reminded myself that back in 2019, nearly all my marathon training happened after work. The Th...

The Run That Shall Not Be Named As I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post, today’s run filled me with nothing short of dread. The infamous double threshold run loomed ahead, and, quite frankly, I wasn’t ready to face it. Threshold runs are already my least favourite—if running sessions were a royal court, the threshold run would be the one lurking in the shadows, grinning with far too many teeth. And yet, my ever-faithful Garmin, in its infinite wisdom, informed me this morning that today’s plan involved not one, but two of these efforts. I simply wasn’t in the mental space to accept this reality. So, I engaged in a well-practised coping mechanism: denial. I ignored it, carried on with my morning, and enjoyed a lovely lunch with Kelly and Emilia. We laughed, we ate and for a blissful while, I pretended my running shoes didn’t exist. But, as with all inevitabilities, I had to face my fate eventually. Into the Fire (Twice!) Knowing that a flat route would give me the best chance o...