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Lowrez, since you will now be an air hostess, could your contacts not fix us up with seat upgrades for SA? And,the pink shirt.might be good for an air hostess on Durban beach! Have a good run in Manchester and put us all out of our suspense!
How's everyone else getting on in their races?
I look forward to reading all others marathon results today.
McHilly - glad you have decided to come
I hope things keep improving for you.
Snail - that sounds awful - but I love your positive approach - well done in applying the right strategy and coming out with a smile
Terry - I hope things continue to improve for you - isn't 62 a good omen - marathon is only 4 of those - you are in 4:30 form if you can string that along?
4:37 for me in Manchester today - golly! I have qualified - and dressed as Britney Spears as an Airhostess! Although the similarities between me and her were probably marginal
Did get many shouts of "Hey Britney" though so it must have worked - I reserve the right to publish any photos depending what comes out in the wash - golly! I have qualified! PS didn't see Marty or anyone else - hope things went well!
McHilly - glad you're coming. Hope things improve for you over the next couple of months.
Southern Snail - that's a "character building" event!
A couple of gentle trail runs for me this weekend - marking out then SDW50 course between Saddlescombe and Housedean on Sat and the Surrey Hills today picking up Leith, Holmbury and Pitch Hills.
McHilly - glad you're coming. Hope things improve for you over the next couple of months.
Southern Snail - that's a "character building" event!
A couple of gentle trail runs for me this weekend - marking out then SDW50 course between Saddlescombe and Housedean on Sat and the Surrey Hills today picking up Leith, Holmbury and Pitch Hills.
Thanks everybody
Love Becca's post 
There were a few factors pushing me along today
- Sensible advice from all here not to dress up - but I really wanted to - and I didn't want to come back with my tail between my legs having failed
- I was trapped, probably to my benefit, by the 4:45 bus until halfway. Bloody annoying sing-alongs and pace slowers, couldn't wait for the opportunity to be rid of the bloody thing, especially when I did break free and the driver complained that I hadn't shaved my back! I have no back hair! Do I? Having burned them off I didn't want the embarrassment of being recaptured by them.
- As time went on I wanted to burn as many dying swans as possible - I did slow a bit - but I forced myself to stand up and grind the miles out - I know the time was looking rather good for me and I really wanted to capitalise on the effort I'd put in behind me.
- I wanted to run London with no pressure on.
- I wasn't jet lagged!
Happy days
Snail, well done at Exmoor. Sounds like you've kept up the strength work better than I have. I -am- trying to do it, but not managing as much as I should do.
McHilly, good to know you're coming to Durban. Good luck for continued recovery.
Terry, best of luck.
lowrez: that's great news! Well done you!
Managed a 2-hour mostly-trail run after three hours of marshalling.
McHilly - hope the Achilles improves and you can train more
terry - fingers crossed for London. How's it going on the health front? What start are you?
slow duck - definitely a character building run. Never felt like marathon distance. Bit weird that I took it as a training run. Might have to do the ultra next year!!!
debra - it's on my schedule to do strength training twice a week. It's not my forte and I find it somewhat boring. It's just half an hour twice a week and have kept it up so far!!
SS - sounds a very tough event but perfect for Comrades and for the mental strength that is required. Keep up the strength work. I'm doing the same and it can only help (I hope!).
McH - glad the bath and soak made you change your mind! 2 months to get yourself on track.
Rotterdam was quite uneventful but blessed with warmer temperatures the past weekend. 15C and sunny at the start rising to c.20C. This swelled the crowds and there was good support most of the way around. Even splits for a steady 3:35. Quite a contrast to Utrecht 3 weeks back which had zero at the start and a wind chill of -7C (good you gave that a miss Terry). It took me some hours to warm up again.
I'm doing a low-key ultra next weekend at Castricum, North West of Amsterdam, 61.9km where I'm sure I'll be the only Brit. It's not hilly as you might expect but takes into account a number of dunes along the coast so heavy on the feet, should be interesting!
McH - excellent news that you will be coming to Durban.
Terry - no Britney outfit at London please and no drama either. Will see you on the Green start.
Mac - nice running at Rotterdam. Good luck for Castricum.
lowrez - since that really is you, well done.
Slow Duck - good to hear from you and that terrain doesn't sound so gentle.
Well done Debra on fitting a run in around marshalling.
I did Sheffield half marathon this weekend, as a bit of a cut back week. The first 5 miles are pretty much all uphill so this was good training. I'm supporting at Brighton marathon this weekend so anyone running that should see me at mile 19. I'm going to try and fit in a couple of medium long runs while I'm down there, staying in Horsham.
All low key for me at the moment, have a few short races next weekend & then it's time to face the Connemara Ultra on April 22nd. If I get through that ok then I'll be a lot more confident for Comrades.
Marty - sorry I missed you - that would have been around the time of my greatest frustration and I was probably giving the bus driver the evil eye from several rows back rather than scanning for Comrades caps. Of course the driver would have been oblivious to my witchcraftery. If I had faded I was counting on you grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and dragging me those last few miles; good job I managed to hang on!
5:21 is a damned good finish for a first marathon - I have done a few slower than that!
And yes, sorry we didn't quite meet, but perhaps in Durbs this year?
jkissane - ooh, connemara. I ran that a good few years ago and had a great time. The scenery is amazing, and although i didn't realise it at the time, the final hill you have to go up is just perfect training for Comrades. Enjoy!!
Defo meet in Durbs Marty
Since I posted above, if you look in the comments below the video, they have added earlier finish footage, so that link is about an hour too early, the new position to see me prance over the line is here
Mac3 - your race sounds really cool, used google translate to find out more about it. Sounds really scenic - forests and dunes is a very interesting combination.
I had a poor weekend of training, we're moving into a friends vacant house before builders arrived for ~3 weeks. The packing up and moving took us ages, bit of a nightmare and the last thing I wanted was to miss any long runs in April
Terry if you're going for it in London and looking for someone to run with for just short of 5 hrs then give me a shout meneer.
What start are you in? I'm in green, so unless you are there too, the chances of finding each other in that crowd are surely quite slim! Also, I'm sure my pace would bore you to tears so I'm not so sure you'd want to do that.
I won't get bored in London, it's too good a day out for that so I'm up for it if you're keen?
We can confirm details nearer to race day but there's a big 3 mile arch just after all the runners converge, I can wait in front of that wearing a Comrades cap and/or one of the day-glo Comrades t-shirts (plus you'll see that I'm the only one carrying a sjambok!)
I could join you in this task JAR; I recall Britney has a costume with a sjambok and we could both ensure Terry "moves along" at the required pace