Bluefin Flora London Marathon 2009 Team Blog by Bluefin

First a bit of history. The Duke of Cumberland, known as Butcher Cumberland by the Scots, has a flower named after him called "sweet william"; the scots refer to it as "stinky billy". He also created the Virginia Water park and named it after his wife Virginia so this historic location was the latest venue for the marathon wannabes.

Neha was a late dropout which left Barry, John and I. John arrived early and so had done 5 miles before we even arrived. Anyway we all took the lucozade sport and set off. I was running to a set heart rate 135 - 140 because I knew we had a long one ahead of us. This meant that for the most part I was trailing behind John and Barry. We were averaging just over 10 minute miles as planned then John decided to cut his short and limit his run to about 15 miles (mothers day obligations). Barry and I went on but Barry's legs ran out of steam and I think he stopped about 16.

I went on and finished 17.77 (slightly more than planned) in 2:58 which I was more than happy with and which means my preparations are pretty much back on track.

Its been a very rapid increase in mileage over the last few weeks which is a big ask and what I had underestimated was how much harder this is for John and Barry who have never run these distances (or time on feet) before.

I dropped Barry off at Woking Station and headed for Mothers day lunch back home with extended family. Roast dinner, wine, champagne which more than made up for the earlier efforts.

Next week I'm on holiday in the lakes and I have a 20 miler lined up - 2 circuits of Derwent Water which will be the maximum I'll do before the big day.

The shins are grumbling a bit this evening so I need to be careful and so I may limit the mid week training this week to enable me to complete the 20 miler next weekend.