Tag Archives: Pasta

British10k only 3 days away – last minute preparation time

Less than 72 hours to go until the race on Sunday!

Training pretty much all done.  Not too worried about the distance, it’s more doing it in a good time and with 25,000 other people running, not being caught up in the pack and my starting pace not what I want.  Want to get sub-45 minutes which I know I can do.  Sub-44 even better and race day adrenaline might get me there.

The race starts at 9:35am and it’s a 2km walk to the start from tube / rail drop off.  Not a problem, just need to leave enough time.  Still trying to figure out where Nic and the little Nobles can go to get best views of the runners, with a hope of seeing me!

2 minutes before the start, the Band of Her Majesty’s Lifeguards, will be playing the National Anthem.  A very cool way to start.

Sounds like it’s going to be a busy busy start.  25,000 runners is huge and all on the streets of this great city – closed off again to traffic.

Day of rest today after a 10k training run yesterday.  Was aiming for sub-45 minutes but got hit by a car – nice – when crossing a drive.  Nothing major, all ok, just pushed back a little bit and think the driver was more shook up than me!  Forgot to stop the watch though so it meant about 45 seconds extra on the time.

So what to do in the last 3 days to make sure we’re all ready for the big day…

  1. One last easy training run tomorrow – 48 hours before.
  2. Sort out train and journey times for Sunday morning – it’s an early start.
  3. Figure out where the Noble fans will go and where to meet them after.
  4. Pasta action for the next few nights – carb loading.
  5. Plenty of water – hydration.
  6. Make sure the trusty Garmin watch is fully charged and ready to go.
  7. Drinks and Jelly beans (Jelly Belly of course) for post-race refreshments.

And – the big one – don’t forget the Vaseline (to stop chaffed legs and the deadly runners nipples).  Forgot this a few times over the last few weeks – stupid mistake – and chaffed legs (top of thighs) are back.  Very sore.  Daily moisturising needed to fix it.  Lots of Vaseline needed for Sunday.  Go for Vaseline – not the expensive creams.  See my last blog post on this – “Runners nipples the conclusion – I’ve cracked the problem“.

Wish me luck!

Love this quote from Mo Farah…

Don’t dream of winning, train for it.

What do 37,542 people running in London look like?

That’s the official number of confirmed runners from Virgin and it’s the most since 2010…

So not the most ever but still a huge huge number.

To see what this many people running looking like, either come along and have a great day out as a supporter – it’s London at its best (there’s nothing like it), watch out for it all on the TV (BBC1 I think) or check the photos in the papers on Monday.  But it looks something like this…

To be in that crowd is nothing short of awesome.  A solid 2 mile long stream of people all running and all buzzing.  Happy days.

That’s it before the big day.  Pasta done.  Kit ready.  Number and tag fixed.  Train times sorted.  Kids in bed.  Bed early for us soon and then up early tomorrow for an early start.

Good luck to everyone running tomorrow.  It’s a great event, great fun to be part of it, yes it’s hard and it hurts but it’s well worth it when you cross the finish line and get the medal.  Enjoy the experience!