Easter Marathons - numbers 48 & 49

The last week has seen my highest mileage since I was taking part in the 10in10 last year and it was my final week of training before my taper for the TP100. To get the miles up, I entered a couple of marathons over the Easter weekend.

Good Friday saw me making the most of the day off work and driving up to Milton Keynes for an Enigma Marathon, which was a really special event as it was where my friend Heather (who's doing the 10in10 this year) was celebrating her 100th marathon and full entry into the 100 Marathon Club.

Before we started

Mid-race

My run itself was pretty unspectacular, but I ran without a watch, just on feel, so happy with my finish time of 4:19, although having worn new shoes with only 12 miles in them, I managed to be rewarded with a massive blister on the sole of my foot, which developed after about 3 miles. Not good!

There were lots of friends at the marathon though, and the celebrations in the pub for Heather after the run were great - a presentation of her 100 Club kit, the medal, a speech from Foxy, and enormous amounts of cake! Really nice to catch up with everyone, see what races people have coming up next, and share a pint or two ;)

Unfortunately though, I finished the day feeling that I was getting fed up with all the training...marathon after marathon had started to take it's toll and I was starting to see them as a bit of a chore.  I always struggle with the 7 laps of the Milton Keynes lake, but absolutely love the social, family feel of the event - still, I drove home thinking I could really do with that being my last race before the taper, and I wasn't looking forward to the next day when I was going back up the M1, this time to Northampton and the Easter Round the Reservoir race put on by Dave and Linda Major.

A DNS did cross my mind to be honest - I considered just running the distance locally around home, but the motivation to run the Thames Path as my 50th marathon was too great, and so I go up at stupid o'clock again on Saturday morning and pulled on my kit to get marathon #49 done.

As it turned out, this excellent event was exactly what I needed to restore my faith in marathons. Although another lap event, and very flat again, there was a mix of terrain, some really lovely views across the Brackmills Reservoir, and various other distractions in the form of barges and rowers on the River Nene, horses in the fields and a flock of sheep scattered across the route.  I definitely enjoyed the run, and ran without a watch again, so was very pleased to finish in 4:11, 8 minutes faster than the day before, and still felt really strong. Again I was able to share the day with friends which always makes it more enjoyable too! :)

On Sunday, I went out for another run, although much shorter, just getting in 8 miles, to take my week's total to 72.48 miles. My legs still felt normal and not tired at all - I'm very pleased with how much fitness has come on over the last couple of months, and it's a fantastic confidence boost for the big race, which is now in just two weeks.

Unfortunately though, although I was able to run over 50 miles on my blister, it is still very painful and is likely to take a while to properly heal up - on close inspection this morning, I've realised I have a blood blister underneath and in the middle of the main blister, which is definitely not what I needed so close to the hundred.  Fingers crossed that it gets better quickly and that the unbelievable amounts of chocolate I have eaten since wont impact my running too much ;)

Now for my taper....