This weekend it was, of course, the Bupa Great North Run. Biggest half marathon in the world. Fifty-odd thousand people – including Mo Farah, Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie; Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar. I had never run it before and it was my key race in the buildup to the Lucerne marathon, and off the back of 10k PB last week. I couldn't wait.
It started to go wrong on Friday: pre-race nerves and hypochondria started to give way to definite temperature and chesty cough. By Saturday afternoon I was shivering, achy and dizzy as I climbed the escalators at King's Cross station in London. I picked up my tickets and stared at the Newcastle train. I pictured myself trying to run race pace for 13 miles. No chance. Could I just jog round, get a long run in the bank? Maybe, but probably at the expense of making myself worse. I let the train go.
Did I do the right thing? Well, I got to watch two of the best road races I can remember – Bekele hanging back, pretending to struggle, then dropping the other two cross-country style on the downhill at 12 miles, before Farah's amazing last-ditch burst, coming up short for once. And Priscah Jeptoo's marathon strength showing the buildup should not all have been Dibaba v Defar. I wouldn't have seen that as I lurched grey-faced towards South Shields in the rain. But as I watched the rest of the runners come in, many of whom had clearly had a tougher time of it than I would have, I still felt guilty and that I was missing out.
I bet lots of Running Blog followers ran the race – how was it? Did anyone ask Robbie Savage if he couldn't have run in a charity vest rather than a sport shop advert? If not, what else have you all been up to? It is getting into the most crucial weeks of training for most autumn races (don't I know it) – what are your plans? I'm feeling better than I would have after a 24-hour trip with a half marathon in the middle, but I still feel ill and desperately short of long runs.
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