That’s it! Training is complete, there’s nothing more to do but go for an early bed and make sure I get up bright and early tomorrow.
This final week of taper began with the usual rest day Monday. On Tuesday I went for my usual run round Linlithgow Loch, stopping to grab a quick picture in front of the Palace:
Max elevation: 65 m
Min elevation: 41 m
Wednesday saw another loop round the Loch, but this time I didn’t go up the Bonnytoun Farm loop. Just three miles – why did I still feel tired?
Max elevation: 80 m
Min elevation: 41 m
And the only other run left was today – just two miles. I drove to Tesco, went out along the canal for ten minutes, turned round and came back again. Well, I had to go an extra 0.1 miles, as it took me to having run exactly 500 miles in training… hopefully the extra 0.1 mile won’t have too detrimental an impact tomorrow!
Max elevation: 79 m
Min elevation: 77 m
So, training is done. Thank you to Marie and the family for giving me the time to put the hours in. The journey started on Boxing Day, and since then I have run through sun and snow, gales and calm, rain and hail.
I’ve not managed every run in the training schedule, but I’ve managed most of them. Those that I did miss were pretty much unavoidable because of the weather.
Whatever happens tomorrow, I know that I have worked hard and put in the miles. I might manage to get round in four hours, I might fall apart and take seven. Or not complete at all. I don’t know.
But I’m going to enjoy it!