Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. Take the Tour of Merseyside for example, it’s six races over seven days which ends up as 52 miles in total. The first time I did it I thought it seemed impossible. I was building up up to running the Dopey Challenge (my ultimate goal when I started running) and it was my first experience of back to back racing. I remember shin splints and pain but I got through it (mostly due to the other runners).
I loved the experience so much that I wanted to do it again but I knew I could, there was no mountain to conquer so I built my own. I added on a marathon, a 10k and two 5k races and turned it into 90 Miles, 9 races in 10 Days. I was trying to race 1000 miles in a year for MS which kept me motivated but I remember almost crying during the 12 mile last day of the tour and I still had a 10k to race the next day.
As I said at the start, sometimes I don’t think my brain likes me very much. Skip forward to now and my third tour attempt starts on Sunday. In the two days before I’ll be doing the Knowsley Fab 4 miler and Snickerthon marathon. I’ll then complete the first three races of the Tour, Southport Half, an 6 mile multi terrain in Thurstaston and a 10 miler along the Ralla. Whilst everyone else then takes a day off I’ll be jumping on a train back to Shropshire to complete the July the Turd marathon. The next day it’s back to the tour with a 5 miler, a 6 mile cross country and then the final 12 mile race over the next three days. I may also throw in a parkrun if I can sort out the logistics.
10 races, 9 days and 111.3 miles.
I’m actually pretty nervous about it to tell the truth. I feel like I haven’t ran a marathon in forever even though I’ve done 20 this year already and my last one was 4 weeks ago. I’ve also done more mileage in a week too, the 7 in 7 in March was 183.4 miles in 7 days and i flew through it (well for me) so I’m not really sure why I’m so anxious. I’ve told myself I can’t do it a billion times and I’ve lost all my usual crazy challenge confidence for some reason. Maybe because I know what comes next, 10 marathons in 10 days down in Gravesend 5 weeks after the tour.
I need a good tour really. I want to approach the 10 marathons feeling strong and positive because I know how much of crossing those finish lines is your head rather than your legs or lungs. I need to have good races and love running so time and speed are pretty much irrelevant to me. So i just need to kick the nerves and start thinking positive. It doesn’t help that i just had a really bad 10k race on Sunday. Penny Lane 10k and i got ill and couldn’t talk and ran so badly. I’ve been starting my races way too fast lately too so I really need to work on that.
I think, also, i need to remember why i added the two marathons. By the end of the 10 days I’ll have completed marathons 24 and 25 of the 52 marathons in 52 weeks for Warrington Disability Partnership. I’m be so so so close to being halfway through the challenge. My 26th of the challenge 75th marathon overall will be day one of the August 10 in 10. The s is getting real.
Wish me luck and I know times are hard but if you do have a little to spare over the course of the challenge then my Just Giving page is here. 🙂
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