Day 225 Sunday 12th August 18 miles : miles to date 1479

As the alarm went off at 4.30 am, I did wonder why I was getting up at that time to go for a run. I suspect that I was still partly asleep, as twenty minutes later I stepped out of the door to get a run in before a train I was due to catch seven minutes past most people are still asleep am. I was on the way later to the Mall to watch the Olympic marathon and for various reasons, it was either run at that time or late afternoon, which would have been much harder.
It was dark as I left although quite warm and it was great to chill out with Ian Drury blaring into the ears and other similar eighties tunes. I was aiming to cover eighteen miles in 2:15, which would have been seven thirty mile pace, but I did struggle for a change and couldn't maintain the pace, eventually coming in at 2:20 and well over half a mile behind target which I was not very happy about.
I'm not sure what slowed me dow

n. Maybe it was the daft am start, trying to run sub 7:30 pace within twenty minutes of waking up, lack of breakfast, the undulating and in part cross country course, the hills at Millbrook, the soon to be lost beer belly, the rucksack on my back or the fact I had to run at that time on my own watching the clock all the way. Or perhaps a mix of the above. I was still not happy at being five minutes off target and despite all the above, it has given me a kick up the backside. Its time to get serious.
Having met the lads on the platform with a whole 42 seconds to spare, we travelled up to the Mall and spent a great day watching the pro's show us how to really run the marathon. The funny thing was that as they went past, they didn't seem to be running that fast but they were going at light speed. That was simply down to the fact that all of them ran with such fluency, effortlessness and grace that they made a speed that I could keep up for maybe half a mile, look like a trot in the park. It was a privilege to see them run and capped off an amazing Olympics.