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Now I have to hope the 100-miler doesn't break me... I'm aiming to take it easy next week, once I've run the Book Day Challenge this Saturday, so hopefully I will be rested and really looking forward to the run come 10th March. lowrez (and anyone else who has done this sort of distance), what's your experience with how long you needed to rest afterwards?
Debra, not sure my experience is relevant as I am a bit (substitute extremely) daft in attempting these and things go wrong that might not if I had as much training as you under my belt. I still remember the pain of the shin splints days after, my totally blistered feet, so much so, that feeling has never returned to one of my toes all these months after... so I haven't really recovered yet.
If your feet do blister badly then the challenge becomes ridiculously hard.
I enjoyed your blog - you might be in the wrong profession! I hope your injury problems resolve soon.
Is anyone else on here running in Cambridge? I'll be wearing a Comrades 2016 shirt and cap - and be right at the back end of the start.
Debra, you are doing an amazing lot of mileage - just take care to not be over-trained for Comrades! (I have no such risks!!)
Echo Terry's well meant concern Debra - although I realize I am the antithesis of your endeavours so don't have a leg to stand on with that point of view
What pace are you planning for London Terry? Dare I suggest we trot along together - mind you - if my dressing up plans come to fruition you may not want to admit you know me
In other London news; I made the news
Terry good luck at Cambridge.
A half marathon for me this weekend as well - The Big Half, which is a new one put on by the London Marathon organisers.
Yes good luck Terry and Becca
I am breathing a sigh of relief; unfortunately The Grim tomorrow has been cancelled. I have the option of jumping to Fri/Sat/Sun but given the roads around the reservoirs are currently closed due to snow and the forecast is not improving I suspect it won't go ahead on those days either, so I have taken the alternate offered of withdrawing from the event and having something else sorted out after the weekend mayhem is over; I suspect it will simply be entry into next year's Grim. So I now need to find another venue to have a go at the sub5, soon! Manchester looks enticing giving me chance to recover from my current ills and still have a tad of recovery time for London and beyond
but I will think about it and cast around for other potential events. Seren; I note Newport is closed 
Lowrez, I'd be very happy to run with you in London but I wonder if we'll ever find each other. I think I might be in a different start area /'colour' as good for age 70. I'll have to find out where I start. As to target time I would try for 4:55 in the hope of a sub 5.
closes in 4 days
Terry I don't have a start colour yet; I'm not good for anything; I am running for a charity so I think I'll only know the start in the days leading up to the gun going. I registered as a 5 hour completion, but that is all relative isn't it depending when you get over the line. I recall when I started last year I was in an 11 minute per mile bin and took an extremely good while to get over the line. I suspect the only time we will see each other is in the post completion pub; if we can agree the venue that is
Blimey that's very flat isn't it JAR!
Becca, red won't go with my outfit, can I have yellow?
Yeah, that damned flat:-
:-)
Hello all, I still like to pop in every now & again. Chatted to a few Comrades runners at the weekend at Malta. Glad to see many doing well - still plenty of time left though.
Thames Meander is as flat as they come - ran the half before I went to Nepal / India last November.
For the first time in years I will not be watching (or running) the race live as it`s Endure24 that weekend...but I will picture myself running Comrades when I`m running around in circles. Extra motivation & all that.
I`m up for a bit of a social after London.
Terry, lowrez: I Will try not to overdo it. My aim at the moment is to maintain a level of fitness, where I can comfortably run (not race) a marathon or 50K - or two - any weekend. That's very different from building up for a single long event. I've probably lost some top-end speed - although I did okay at a recent cross-country, but my endurance is good.
lowrez, Thames Meander is a good idea. And less crowded than M'cr.
My longest event i have ran was about 18 months ago when i completed the Ridgeway 86. Have to say i had a great time, but helped i ran it completely with a friend. It helped so much when you were having a "down" moment since you could just chat and keep going. In terms of nutrition during the event, i made sure i was drinking about 1 litre every 10 miles or so and eating "proper" food, i.e not just gels or sweets throughout.
At about 40 miles which happened to be around 10pm, we stopped for about 15 minutes and had some pasta, changed shoes, socks, tops etc and when we started it felt like a new race.
The hardest bit for me was during the night at about 2-5am. My body just wanted to switch off and you were just waiting for the amazing dawn to break for your body to "wake" up again.
Then again, just after dawn, we stopped once more for tea and croissants for breakfast, probably about 15 mins or so. (again change tops etc.)
I think the time stopped during these points, although feels wrong, does benefit you later in the race. During the normal feed stations, we were in and out in a few minutes.
In terms of recovery after, i didn't run at all for 9 days and then once had started to run again, slowly took the levels back up. I ran Kielder marathon about 5 weeks later and had no problems.
I would say just listen to your body and don't be a slave to the training schedule. If you don't feel like running then don't.
But above all, enjoy it. Its an amazing achievement, one i'm sure you will do brilliantly at given the amount of training you have been doing.
London is too much of a hike, defeatist to attempt it in a day, and I can't make arrangements for an overnighter at this short notice, so, Manchester entered. Can't believe I am having to flog myself around this greyish non-descript route again, wouldn't run it by choice, but if I crack the 5 I will begin to love it more.
This cold is really strangling me, glad I'm not trying to sub5 it today, really want to get out at the weekend, probably try a half to drag the engines back on-line and begin the push for the Mancunian line.
I had a Comrades approach to my 130 - never stop - although I do recall pausing long enough to look at my painful fluid filled soles at around the 100 mark which did involve sitting down and changing socks/shoes. I also learned I absolutely loved ham sandwiches and crisps in preference to all the sugar laden goodies we had brought - they weren't on my list of feed station supplemental supplies - one of my team put their lunch box down next to all the stuff and when I ran past it came with me - at every check-point after that all I wanted was ham sandwiches and crisps!
Such a pity that the horrible weather for the inaugural Greater Manchester Marathon meant a course change so it no longer goes through Dunham Massey - that would be lovely in good weather.
Ran off-road with head torches in the snow across Lloyd Park and through Addington hills for the club run yesterday evening - fun! Trail shoes to run the 1.5 miles to the train station this morning -and I have my ice cleats with me in case it's more icy on the way back.
Wow! Thanks Debra I will keep that in mind
The necessary arrangements are on my side though, specialist carers etc - all my medals don't like being left alone 
That is some serious kit! All I have is road shoes and a Coleman's Mustard head torch. Although I am looking to upgrade that to something more luminescent.
Such a pity that the GMM wasn't really a M until recently
Ahh... depends on your perspective on that one Debra; "The first Manchester marathon was run in 1908 - over a distance of 20 miles"
Arrgh... Marty! That is going to be fraught with danger isn't it. With so much riding on this who is going to trust anyone else, even official pace makers, to bring home the bacon! It will be amazing to see you though
My first qualifying time for Comrades was Cape Town Marathon in 2014 in 4:59:44