It's London Marathon weekend again!

Time flies, and its the London Marathon weekend! A little relieved that I'm not involved in any way this year, unlike 2010: when I was a volunteer and earned the silver medal, and 2011 when I ran my PB and collected the gold medal :) Watching on TV was good enough, after being in the rain last night near Canary wharf, where the barricades were being set up...

This saturday, after doing 12 miles on the bike (as a necessity to get to various appointments and to the shops), we headed east to Excel for the pilgrimage - arguably the largest marathon expo in Europe.The novelty has worn off, nothing new apart from Vibram's barefoot shoes made an appearance, as well as the kinesiotape (both considered a no-no for me - or as my hubby thinks, if I have to tape myself up in that way to run, its time to call it a day). and it being almost closing time, we weren't 'wow-ed' by too many 'firesale' deals.

Got a few new shirts to compensate for my weight gain (oops) and then a pair of Mizuno Wave Riders at 20% off - along with a new t-shirt (pretty nice I must say!) and an union jack bag.

I chose to spend more time at the Mizuno stand this year as I wasn't too sure about my Asics neutral shoes, my last encounter with Mizunos at Prague were that they were very lightweight. Tried a few pairs on the treadmill and this pair (the plain looking light blue coloured Wave Riders) did feel a little like the Inov-8's with a little more support, so I will be gradually wearing them in...hope it's going to work for me!

and a new Running Fitness magazine - with an article on preparing for 10k's.
A topic that I had been discussing with my colleagues (as is my next race on the agenda with only 3 weeks away)...the more I spend the morning watching the London Marathon and the sub-3's and sub-4's coming in, the more i'm feeling unprepared and guilty to be sitting in on a sunny sunday morning, not working off the very nice meal at a marathoner's reunion on saturday night!

By the time I got myself out the door to try out one of the training ideas in the magazine- the sun shifted away....after 2.5 miles, it turned windy and drizzly...and it got worse! lucky I had my 'waterproof' cap and sandwich bag over my iphone  - I was totally drenched in my new heatgear top! The smiles of those remaining on the Thames path as the rain closed in...I can only acknowledge that only someone with a race to train for, a goal to pursue would be crazy enough to be out there and not give up.

This, and other spheres of my life.  Perhaps it's not the best day to start a dietary regime...but I'm taking small steps - qu’est ce qui se passe, what is going on here? a modified version of the leek soup for late lunch/dinner - hope to be in shape before the weekend, before it all starts again, with another weekend trip with out-of-town visitors!

No wonder the VLM showbag this year contains something a little more practical than the usual 'London Pride'...I might use it this week :)