One week and counting

One week to go until Marathon Day....

I have one week to go until I take to the streets of New York City and run my slightly shrunken ghetto booty through 26.2 miles of it’s beautiful, bustling streets. As I enter the “rest period” of my training, the level of excitement continues to grow, along with the level of “shittingmyselfness”.

I guess, at this point I have done all that I can do in terms of preparation – the only thing to focus on between now and run day is resting up, carb-loading (gotta be careful on that one… HashtagSnort) and packing! I am actually finding the resting part trickier than I, or any normal person for that matter, would have anticipated. I guess, when your body is very used to being active for a larger % of the week, it is hard to come down from that.

I did a six-mile run today, and it felt too short. I guess that’s a good thing, right?

I hop on the old familiar early morning Delta flight to JFK on Thursday, which means I have three days in the large apfel before run day – November 4^th – to revisit some of my favourite NY running routes, 75% of which, involve Central Park. I adore the reservoir lap, and cannot wait to do a couple of early morning rounds there.

I say now, 1 week BEFORE the epic legathon, that I’ll do a fair bit of running afterward. I have a whole week to spend in the City before heading back to Londing. If I put my realist helmet on (god, it’s heavy, and it makes me look fat), I can’t help but think that the only running I’ll be doing that week, is to and from the bar of the many, many, MANY pubs I plan on getting rather merry in with buddies and family from NY. I am massively looking forward to catching up with everyone over there. The big bonus? My mum and sister are also coming over for the duration, to be my personal cheerleaders… OK, maybe there’s more reasoning to their trip than to simply shake their pom-poms for Becca on November 4^th, but still. I feel loved. I am so, so chuffed that they’ll be here. There'll be quite a bunch of us actually... Between all the family and friends I have living over there, and the family coming from Ireland for myself and Aoife..... Yep, I feel loved.

I am running the Marathon with my cousin, the aforementioned Aoife, my Uncle John (lives in Manhattan with my Aunt and three awesome little cousins), and a heap of other people I’ve not yet met – all associated in some way, with the IDEAL School, the foundation of which I am raising money for. When I say “running the Marathon with”, that basically means we will start out together but I plan on being a lone ranger for 99.5% of the route.

The whole training experience has been quite rewarding. I am certainly at my fitness peak, I don’t think I’ve ever felt healthier. But it is true what they say – “What is good for the body is good for the mind”, and my mind feels..... minded?

B