I have a soft-spot for Is This Love, which always reminds me of walking along the Leeds Ring Road in the pouring rain, but that's another story. Besides, Is This Love hardly describes my current state of mind, which is decidedly Here I Go Again. Packing again for another marathon. It feels like I just come back from one. Which, of course, I did. A bit different this time, as I'll be running as a pace-bunny. As I'e said before, 26.2, regardless of pace, is not a distance to be undertaken with alacrity and one still has to prepare properly. So I've still been tapering this week (more riding, less running), eating well, drinking well (water, you tarts) and catastrophising just like it's a "real" marathon. So once more, I've spent the day grimacing as I cycle through some bastard mix of compartment syndrome, a rapidly evolving shin-splint (I predict a full-blown stress-fracture by tomorrow morning) and cancer of the patella. Of course, all of this will resolve rapidly at 08:00:05 on Sunday morning.
I'm starting to think I need a separate box for pace-bunnying, just like I do for officiating. I had to go hunting hither and yon tonight for my two pace-bunny shirts and an appropriate hat!
Again, just like officiating, there is a uniform of the day: Running Room has both blue and red bunny shirts and white and black hats with ears. As I don't know which shirt we'll be wearing I've taken both. The only hat I have with 3:30 on it is a white one, so that one went in the bag too. Maybe I'll get another one tomorrow.
At the moment I'm quite looking forward to Monday morning, as I can have some of your actual sleep. Tonight is going to be a long, or should I say short night. I have to pick la belle up from a midnight flight at YHZ and I'm being picked up in turn tomorrow morning at 08:00. Perhaps I should stay at YHZ and they can pick me up on the way! Sunday morning is, perforce, race morning which always means breakfast at 5 before catching the bus to the start. So that means a lie-in on Monday
Should be an interesting car ride up as it sounds like a joke: an Englishman, a Scotsman, a Greek and a dude from Alberta are in a car driving to the PEI ferry. I don't know what the punchline is, but I'm pretty sure at least two are genetically predisposed not to get the drinks in.
On the serious side, there's some serious age-group marathoning in there. Kevin (the Scot) has run a ton of marathons, not quite Nevitt but getting there, and many are sub-3. Quiet as a runner and a person, he nether-the-less gets the job done. Unfortunately for our car-mates, we can speak together in an almost mutually unintelligible form of English. Fit ya sayin'? The Alberta guy is Ian Blokland, an academic on sabbatical. a recent addition to Halifax Running Club, member of our victorious Rum Runners team and holder of many sub-threes too. Nick is the Greek guy (if anyone has seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels you'll know what I'm thinking), kicked my arse at Johnny Miles and if he doesn't go sub-three this weekend I'll be surprised. I think Ian is going to be his personal pace-bunny on Sunday. I know a few other people from Nova Scotia who are going, but unlike our eclectic car-some, I think these guys are Nova Scotia. Ian McGrath I believe is aiming sub-three as well as Nick whilst Anita Howard is aiming for 3:30 and I think will be following my bouncy, pink, Running Room issue ears across the island on Sunday.
Good luck all and remember, if you pass a car with an Englishman, a Scotsman, a Greek and a dude from Alberta, it's a joke!
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