Half Marathon

On Sunday I'm running a half marathon in Coventry. Or, to be a little more specific, I'm hopefully attempting to run the "Lady Godiva half marathon". (If you want an interesting read I suggest you look up Lady Godiva on wikipedia - she's a person with quite an interesting history, one which explains where the phrase 'peeping tom' came from amongst other things)

Except I don't really want to run the half marathon anymore. I feel overwhelmed and underprepared.

It's ironic that I'm not as keen to run now as I'm the one that came up with the idea in the first place and encouraged a friend that entering would be a good idea. When I suggested entering though, I'm not sure I anticipated Steve taking me up on the offer. I just thought that doing something like this would be "nice" - a fun challenge and enjoyable as the route goes through the campus of Warwick uni. I'd not really thought about the necessity of being motivated and putting in the spade work. (Before anyone starts to question my training techniques, I feel I should point out that I use the term "spade work" here metaphorically! :P Thank you.) But fair play to Steve for taking me up on that challenge and I'm sure we've pushed each other on in our training - let's hope we do the same on Sunday.

I mentioned that I feel a little underprepared. Well, I have done a few weeks training (so I'm optimistic that I should be able to complete the race at the very least), but people keep pointing out to me that I could have done a lot more. Like in the following conversation that I had ...

My Mum: "I don't think you've prepared very much for this half marathon - you should have started training much earlier, so don't go out there expecting to run a personal best or anything like that."
Me: "I think you're forgetting something. I've never run a half marathon before. Therefore even if the race takes me six hours it's still a PB. In fact even if I don't start the race I've already acheived a personal best due to the fact that I've entered, thus beating my previous best 'record' of never having entered a half marathon!"

(By the way another thing my mum told me recently was: "you don't drink enough". Before I go out on a binge-drinking spree though, I think she was talking about liquids in general. Yes Mum, I should really drink a bit more water. It's great living at home again! Nah, in all honesty she has a point, but I've gone off the topic just slightly: back to it ...)

Anyway, I'd best go get some sleep to ensure I'm well-rested ready for Sunday. Then I just hope I can last the course.