Best to get your cold out of the way I reckon

And the rest now will be doing your legs good. I would suggest focus this week on good nutrition, hydration and sleep and you'll be good to go Sunday.

Manchester was my first marathon but I have a fair bit of experience up to half distance. I'm sure there are people here with plenty more marathon experience than me but would suggest remaining calm and running the first half even slower than feels easy. I got a bit fooled in to thinkng I was feeling great and then paid for it a bit from 25km. The end is always going to be a mental and physical effort so the most you can do to get yourself to 20 miles feeling ready for the last 6 miles will help I think. For fuel I took water at every station and had a gel/sis jelly bar every half hour which worked OK for me. Kit, use things you have worn in training you don't need any surprises on the day. Anti chafe will help too!

More than anything try and enjoy it and take in the day. Be positive about what you've achieved in your training to get you to the start, that's a big achievement by itself so hopefully the day is a celebration of that as much as anything. I had to talk myself through multiple points and break it down in to chunks / keep telling myself there would be a point where I was on the other side of it even if it meant walking for 60 seconds through the water station.

Posted By: 51eve, Apr 18, 13:06:35