My Forum

Trev - agree with RR; get Vick's First Defence up your nose immediately. Worth hunting-down a Sunday pharmacy. This works if you get in there fast. But my recommendation (for all immune-threatened distance runners) is Wellness Formula. It's vitamin C plus the kithchen sink (echinacea, garlic, zinc and lots else) and it absolutely works. 3 a day when everyone near you has a cold (then I take double that at first symptoms). It will at very least minimise duration/severity. It's expensive and may be hard to find (it's on line, but classy healthfood/supplement outlets sometimes have it). All who try it swear by it. Let's hope you're only experiencing taper-paranoia. Like all of us! 

TD - I had to defer my VLM entry in 2010. Felt awful at the time as it was my first marathon, but I'd been pretty ill with a virus. It's not just the training you miss, but the time it takes to recover enough to run 26.2. There are good reasons why the London guys make it easy to defer, and in the end I was delighted I made that decision. For a start you have a whole year knowing you've got a place, while the rest of us will have to wait until October to be rejected!

DV - I absolutely love Bowie too. He was the the soundtrack to my teens. When I ran competitively at school my teammates used to blast out 'Golden Years' on the ghetto-blaster. Great for 800/1500m as I remember! Agree that this is his best since Scary Monsters (maybe since Lodger?). 'Where Are We Now?' is simply beautiful. Taking my wife and teenage girls to the V&A show tomorrow.

And well done yesterday!!

Feeling rather left out of things on the taper front. Having had a useless Autumn, training only really started in January. I've been cautiously building-up the miles (when ideally they should have been in the bank already) while getting used to orthoses. So I thought I'd do a slow 3hrs today just for time on legs (treadmill; average 2% incline with spells of 1 and 3%). Felt rather odd at 17 miles (2hrs 20mins) so stopped. Hadn't fuelled up enough, I think. Legs - and orthoses- were fine! What I'm getting at here, guys, is can I now call it a day and start easing-off?!! I've done three 1/2 marathons, the last in 1:29, and managed a slow 20m 3 weeks ago. Can one do a 2 week taper? I want to join the madness.

I'll be at th Expo on Friday. Didn't meet any of you last year as only discovered the thread after the race (when they lost my bloody time). Will try to say hello at Arc on sunday, though staying other end of Champs Elysees.

I like this thread, and wish everyone the best of hugely deserved luck!

Don't listen to music myself, as my job as a violinist is to play it all the time! Can't get it out of my head while running, though, so if you hear someone grunting Beethoven or Steely Dan that's probably me. I've got a red bib, but will start in yellow pen. No. 5441. 

Jus T - only backing-up Radar Sal here; you have to get on the foam roller. Agony at first then, after a few sessions, a tremendous relief. Prop yourself up sideways (with the idle leg on top of the one you're rolling on adding weight) and roll up and down lenghth of the ITB. If feeling masochistic you can focus on the most painful bits. Try to relax, ha-ha.