Sub 3h15

Mennania - Fetch, accessible from everywhere, free and if you fancy some geeky stats and graphs you can have your fill. 

Poacher - how many long runs have you done?

Thanks everyone for the kind remarks everyone, and yes it was a pb of 5 mins and 3min negative split.

I do think a fairly heavy race month may have helped too, i had 4 multi terrain races in Sept(1st in my age category) GNR and a 8k XC race in Toulouse.

Birch with your record your hardly inadequate...

Poacher i may just go for a sub 2.55 at VLM as my final marathon.With your half mara time you have got to attempt sub 3 at Abbo, I was a minute slower at GNR.Starting easy-ish and speeding up later worked for me this time starting off fast and trying to bank time was very painful at the end last year...

Speedy hope your coping with the taper ok, it is a strange time with fantom aches and pains, sniffles and worries, all will be well on the day.

JD3 - nice running. Agree that parkrun 8 days before mara should be ok.
Birch - hope today's meeting with the consultant is productive.
SJ - sorry things are not going so well at the moment; hope the fizz does the bizz.
SD - always good to spend some time in the park with the family.
Poacher - "probably could have gone a bit faster"! So there's no way you want to be left with the same thought after Abo, is there?
Mennania - how annyoing; just shows you can't beat good old fashioned pen and paper!
EFC Col - 5 min PB; great going. BTW how did it go in Toulouse? But what's this about a "final" mara?
8 slow miles with 6 x 30sec strides for me this morning.

Lightning read back - too much life going on here

Had to say MEGA performances from Poacher and EFC-col. Both fantastic efforts. Weird how they came off less than ideal prep in one way or another

Both take a massive bow - see you in 12 days Poacher.

Is there a loose plan for Abo boys gathering pre/post race ?

I just use the tape for sticking bandages- cheap and works a treat.

Club GP tonight 3.6 miles, looking forward for a good blast.

Dylan Man - a big dob of vaseline on your nipple should do the job.

efc-col wrote (see)

Starting easy-ish and speeding up later worked for me this time starting off fast and trying to bank time was very painful at the end last year...

Wise words Col and one thing Steve kept telling me to try.Going to try and use the same tactic this Sunday.

Mennania - painful C drive/wine woes. It always amazes how much we take technology for granted these days. I suppose wrting things down take the same amount of time as typing it in, but looks less pretty! I used to use Garmin Connect but think it was making my PC slow down - anyone else experience that?

For the Abo runners meet-up, it was pretty busy indoor last year.  So I suggest to meet in the spectating stand.  If I remember correctly there is a set of doors in the middle of the stands that goes to the inside area.  How about on the right side of that if you were looking from the track?

I had a quick google for a pub for afterwards and http://www.spreadeagle.org.uk/ seams reasonable and close to the parking.

Makes me wince seeing the words "nip guards" and "rip off" in the same post. I'm with KR - can't beat a couple of big blobs of vaseline.

Rest for me this morning - volleyball match this evening.

Back from holiday, and things have been a little fishy on this board. Well done erf-col on a fantastic time.

My chances are slipping away:

Its been about 10 days since I could run - hamstring tendons
I have a chest infection from a freak desert storm (romantic ideas of sleeping under the stars not to be recommended during the taper period)
I have picked up a bug which has induced the worst case of carb unloading you can imagine - I dream of putting on enough weight to become a 10 stone weakling.

Physio appointment is booked, but I daren't have it early this week incase he puts pressure on my abdomen, and I can't control my involuntary reactions.

Apart from that I had a good trip, and it was good to catch up on the running news from the 3:15 crew.  My plans are now to race any marathon going as soon as I am fit, whether it be this weekend, next weekend, or something further out.

honestly try bandage tape, miles better than vaseline...

Also-ran: blimey, you have been in the wars!  I hope you are running-fit, never mind marathon-fit, soon.

First double in ages for me: 5M to work and 5M back.  Off to an orchestra rehearsal shortly (rather a rehearsal-heavy week).

Good grief AR, which marathon was the target?

Good luck AR, sorry to hear about the carb unloading. Not pleasant, that, I know, having once been in such a bad way I actually told the doctor at a rural hospital in Portugal in all seriousness that my wires had becomed tangled and I was now (look away, girls) p***ing out of my a**e.

Fingers (not wires) crossed for you too, Slokey. Maybe the acupuncture will have done the trick?

I give class first thing in the morning at a chemical plant about 15 miles south of here in a small town which is a bit of a dump and stinks of said chemical plant, but is in fact set in the most extraordinarily beautiful countryside. Today I followed a path along the River Nalón through woods and past rocky escasrpments. It was just an out-and-back 7-miler today, with the last 3 miles at a decent enough clip (6:45mm). However, the really amazing thing to report (and here I am pleaed to revive an old thread tradition) is that halfway down the road, snuffling around in the undergrowth at the side of the road, was a baby wild boar! Very, very cute, but I'm glad the mother was nowhere around, as she might have got the wrong idea and charged my scrawny* backside in a very real sense....

Anyway, for today's Wildlife Watch I'm having: one wild boar (baby), various ducks, a heron and/or a crane and some geese.

*Artistic licence, this - there's nothing scrawny about me at all, lately.