Post-marathon

I finally got to the hospital today to get this glandular problem worked out. Good news is I'm basically very healthy - white blood cell count, lungs etc all healthy. More results next week.

My knee is slowly recovering from the marathon (bad ITB pain). I can walk now, and cycling is fine. I'll give running a try later this week.

On the hunt for 10km runs now - need to run as many as possible before a big 12km run in Australia in September.

Tokyo Marathon 09

Well, I finished. And considering I was really wondering if I should start, that has to be a good thing. I also set a new PB - 5 minutes faster than in London Marathon in 2005. But I was hoping for a lot more. I trained pretty hard for this - at least one 2 hour run per week since December, a fast 2 hour run three weeks back, and a 3 hour run. Plus all the rest of the little ones that make up the mileage. In the end it was bad luck, I got hit by a virus of some sort - glands, ears, head all hurt - and began cramping at 30km.

I'll be back next year...

5 days until the marathon

Actually feeling a bit nervous. Every little pain scares the hell out of me. Can't work out what socks to wear on the day. Don't know what to eat in the morning. Worrying about getting heavy but also about not eating enough. Is that a cold I feel coming on?

Steve, thanks for the comment, I'll be looking for you, please forgive me if I'm capable of little more than a grunt as I pass.

11 days until Tokyo Marathon

I did a track workout today. 1,200; 600; 1,200; 600; 1,200. I tried out a second pair of new shoes and liked them, so they'll be the ones I use on the 22nd.

I'm still not feeling 100%. My first 1,200 felt awful.

I tried to use my new Garmin 405, but it's not at all intuitive, so I had no idea how to even get to stopwatch mode (does it even have one?)

Twitter

Wondering why cyclists Tweet more often than runners.

18 days until the marathon

Two years ago, I developed an injury just before the Tokyo Marathon and couldn't start it. This year I took a different approach to training - the number one rule being, if I felt a problem beginning I took a day off.

Now it's just dawned on me that I've completed my hard training. I'm tapering for the marathon now, and that means I'm unlikely to develop an injury. Basically, barring a terrible misfortune, I've made it to the start line!