Training for London Marathon

In the shower, the water trickled down from the hair to the lips. It was salty like seawater. Must be the salt from the sweat that has dried up or dust that have formed from the polluted air in London.

I have just completed a 33km run. I ran to Greenwich and from there, to Hampstead Heath and ended at Camden. That's from the southeast to the northwest of London.

This is one of the two/three long distance training that I will cover before I take on the 2009 London Marathon in April.

I'm lucky to win a ballot to run. This will be the second London Marathon for me.

The difference between training for this and the previous marathon is the advantage of running the route first. Since I am living in London, I get to run the route of the race.

If I get it right, I would have ran the "marathon" twice before the actual race. Will be good to familiarise the route in any way.

Unlike training in Malaysia, I put in some thought to my training route. I make sure the intended distance will end at a place where I can do my weekly grocery shopping afterwards. Killing two birds with one stone.

Today it ended in Camden's Sainsburys. I have intended to do a 30km run. However, when I mapped it up in the web, I have actually covered 33.03km.



That was unintended. I thought my 30km time has worsened but I was happy to know that I have actually finished more than I should in 3hrs 6mins.

I cannot tell non-runners about what I've done today. My housemates for example, think I am crazy. So they do not sympathise me when I come home with a limp. Running 33km is bad enough. They think packing a shopping itinerary afterwards is madness.

But I also have a training mantra. As long as people say that I am crazy, I am training right.