After Monday, when I had to stop without finishing my route, I was quite happy with my pace today. Running around the corner of the headland back towards the North Bay I didn’t feel totally knackered like last time and kept up the same moderately fast pace all the way up to the Sea Life Centre.

I’ve measured the distance between the junction of Albert road and Marine drive up to the Sea Life Centre as a mile and I use how long it takes me to run this distance as an indicator of my pace and how fast I’m running. During this run I managed to complete it in just over 10 minutes, which is actually quite fast for me – usually I aim for a speed of around 12 minutes per mile, which is equivalent to 5h30m marathon pace.

Running north towards the Sea Life Centre means you have the wind behind you and on a day like today with bright sunshine, that means there’s no oncoming breeze to cool you down. So I was getting quite warm and sweaty by this point. Running south, away from the Sea Life Centre usually means the wind is now blowing towards you, which would be a welcome relief on this run, but there was only a calm breeze. So the sweat was by now just pouring off me. Every part of my body was slick with sweat. So much was dripping off my face that it smeared my glasses! It really makes you feel like you’re training hard when the sweat is literally dripping off.

Despite all this, I still managed to complete my route, exhausted but not totally knackered. It definitely felt like one of the most intensive jogs I’ve done so far.

The main disadvantage of running round the headland is that it is exposed. On the way out, the wind is behind you and gives you a welcome push, but on the way back towards the North Bay, the wind is against you. This can really slow you down when you are already tired enough from running.

For the most part, I kept up a steady, sustainable pace. The going was moderately strenuous, yet I didn’t feel exhausted until reached the corner of the headland where the road turns back onto the North Bay. The wind was blowing and there was the occasional gust of sea spray blown in my face. None of this was particularly extraordinary however. What really got me down was when I checked my watch and found out I still had 15 minutes to go.

From that corner I could see my entire route around the North Bay – following the promenade around the bay up past the Sea Life Centre and then into Peasholm Park and it was crushing. That 15 minutes turned into a gruelling slog. I managed to make it to Peasholm Park when the uphill section around Peasholm Glen finally did me in. I decided it was better to finish the course early and preserve my energy rather than punish my legs any more.

I was supposed to have run a half-marathon by this point, but that cold I had a few weeks back has robbed me of two weeks of my schedule. However, 11 miles is only 1.5 miles away from half-marathon distance, so it’s not like I’m drastically under-prepared. My main concern is that the level of fitness I have attained by now is what I will be starting the marathon with. There are no more longer runs planned in my training schedule; Now the focus is on tapering, gradually winding down and scaling back to build up a reserve of energy.

This has also brought me to a realisation that my initial estimate of completing the marathon within 5h – 5h30m is looking too optimistic. I think a more accurate target would be around 6h – 6h30m and I think a lot of that time will be eaten up by having regular walking breaks. Trying to run an entire marathon non-stop seems to be something I will have to look forward to in the future, my priority in this race will just be to get around.

To try and mitigate the point where I will eventually hit the wall, I plan to take full advantage of the drinks stations along the marathon route and i am working on a plan to see how they fit in with my training at the moment. The only thing I can be sure of at the moment is that running this marathon is going to be a gruelling achievement.