Fukuoka Marathon - Pre Race

It's been a very long time since I updated the blog so I am sorry about this. I have been busy with wedding/thanksgiving/family visits/bachelor party/travelling stuff so the updates had to take a back seat for a while.

The wedding was amazing. Easily the best day of my life. Everything went perfect and the only thing that threatened to ruin it for me was forgotten about. We really couldn't have asked for a better day from the photographs to the ceremony and then the reception. All our friends and family which really made it special for us. Julie and I also nailed the choreographed dance that we had been practising for our first dance. The only thing that was tough was trying to talk to everyone and be able to mingle a little more. We had to rush through that part as we had to get the dance done at a certain point of the night. We will see everyone soon enough though. We head off to our honeymoon once I get back from Japan. We will be going to Cancun, Mexico to an all-inclusive hotel so I will be doing a lot of eating and drinking while I am there. I think my body will need it!

I have been in Fukuoka since Monday and things have been going well. I haven't had that "feeling amazing everyday" feeling that I had before London but I know I just have to time it right to feel good on race day so i'm not worried about that. The last 2 weeks are usually pretty tough as you taper so much that you get crazy thoughts running through your head about having not trained enough or resting too much. I was lucky that I had my wedding and family visiting to take my mind off of the silly mental games that can be played on yourself. Saying that, I am now in Japan with nothing much else to do but think about the race and those thoughts have crept into my mind. The original goal of this race was to go out with the leaders as they were supposed to be going out at 64.00 to 64.30 pace through half way but now this has been increased to 63.30 so I'm having to modify the tactics a little. 64.30 through half way would be perfect but i'm not sure what the group will look like so I am just going to run as I feel on the morning of the race and try and forget about the watch. I am going race rather than time trial and this is one of the reasons I chose Fukuoka to run. I got frustrated running on my own for such a long time at London that I wanted to see how I would do when I am running amongst a lot of other runners. I realise that running solo is a big part of the marathon and I'm not perturbed by that but if I can get the opportunity to run with people for most of the race, then I will take it. I think I am 20th on the list of times of the runners in the race so I am really going to try and grasp this opportunity to run fast.

The weather has been great apart from a few days ago when a tornado came through and brought lots of rain. It was then very windy yesterday but this morning it was quite nice. I have been going to bed at 8.30pm/9pm and waking up at 5am every morning so it has been really nice to run around the lake while the sun is rising.

Jurrie (my agent) and I met up with Taku from Mizuno yesterday and we had a good talk and he gave me a bag load of new gear and shoes. On Monday, after the race, Jurrie, Taku and I will all head to Osaka to the Mizuno headquarters to do some work there. I will fill you all in afterwards what is entailed but I think they are keeping it a secret right now.

Ok…now its time to go get some lunch and relax for the rest of the day. I have got all my coaching work done so I can just put my feet up and watch some films.

Cheers for now. I will try and get some news to you tomorrow if I have time after the race.