Runners united (come join us if you are addicted to running!)

Thanks all for the good wishes, have got butterflies now! This time tomorrow .....

Feeling generally pretty good, I keep imagining little niggles in my legs and feet but I'm pretty sure there's nothing actually there. I'm determined to enjoy myself no matter what and no matter how long it takes .

DH will be there tomorrow and has worked out a spreadsheet (!) to plot where I will be hopefully. He's got my drinks and sweets ready and we're going to buy a plant spray thing so he can lightly hose me down as I pass - he suggested a bucket but I think that may be overkill?!. My lovely friend is also coming down and between them I should have someone to cheer me on every 5 miles.

We had an email from the organisers yesterday to say they're expecting 20+ degrees and to please please take it easy, so I will take them at their word.

Have a lovely weekend running everyone, will be on my phone only from now on so will post as soon as I can! Thanks so much for the support - you've all been ace.

Good luck Paws! You can do it! Remember to take in water whenever you pass a water stop if you can, even if just a little bit. Pour the rest over your head. And take some oral rehydration salts (dioralyte) when you finish.

I too am of Dr No.

10k done this morning, up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill. How come it never gets any easier? 15k tomorrow. Guess what? More hills.

Someone please tell me Enfield is flat.

Just a quickie to say GOOD LUCK to you paws! Can't wait to hear how it goes.

Also DrNortherner now I'm even more jealous of you living in Harrogate than before - what a gorgeous place to run.

This thread is like a full time occupation, it moves so quickly . Its great everyone's so chatty. I've been caught up with other stuff so not got much time to post - other than to say GOOD LUCK PAWS for Sunday. Will be thinking of you and hoping it all cools down a bit.

Will be back to catch up properly asap...

Angechica I can't run with any headphones, I just spend half my time fiddling with them and trying to kepp them in, then they hurt. I hink those huge ones that are making a come back might be better.

cestlavie I struggle to imagine where the countryside is in London?! I am so not a city girl, i just imagine busy roads and lots of traffic, but of course it has grass and parks too

I am so lucky, I ca run for 5 mins and I am here 68 acres of woodland and riverside paths. If you are lucky you even get to see Otters!

Paws Good luck for Sunday! How you feeling?!

I typed out a long message this morning and it seems to have got lost in the ether So much to read through, I really can't keep up with this thread

Hope you are all set for Sunday paws, it's very warm down here at the moment but look slightly cooler the next couple of days I think Wishing you all the best for a wonderful day paws, just make sure you enjoy yourselfI would come and cheer you and everyone else on but we are dispatching the ds's to my mums so we are heading in a different direction

I have been on a course the last couple of days (about suicide very interesting though) so had to get up and do my run at 5.30 yesterday morning I am not an early morning runner normally so a bit of a shock to the system Only 6.5 miles which I tried to do at marathon pace but still struggling to keep an even pace!

Angechica I use the headphones that hook over my ear, they work well.

Have a lovely running weekend everyone.

Hi all, Moshi how embarrassing but you would have thought most people would realise? It doesn't sound like you make a habit of sending your contacts rude emails? I'm in a phase at the moment where I keep getting them allegedly from "the bank" - so funny because they always sign off "regards" after asking me to email them back with my security details - yeah I'm really that stupid .

Just had a weather warning from the organisers - they're expecting 21 degrees and no wind, so have just sent a warning to everyone to stay hydrated and slow down. No worries on that score from me! Thanks for all the good wishes though, am excited but now looking forward to a long drink afterwards.

AngeChica I find the only pair that work for me are the rubbery earbud types - Philips I think?

Same here Moshi - changed my hotmail password and the problem went away, although it was exceptionally annoying.

It is bizarre when you get those e-mails... got one from a friend recently along the lines of "Hey cestlavie, how're you doing.?I was looking at and I thought you might like it. See you soon! Zoe"

For a minute, you think, wow's that a kind of weird and utterly out of character recommendation from Zoe and then your brain clicks in and says ah. Spam. Clearly that clicking in didn't happen in your contact's case!

Lovely run in this morning. Had a client meeting early on so my new training plan which had a proper long SLOW run in it went by the wayside and it became a 9 mile HM race pace run instead but it felt pretty good all the same. Gorgeous run though the early morning sunshine, taking in a bit of London 'countryside', yes, even running through grassland! Even got a smile out of a fellow London runner which goes to show just how good people must be feeling out there!

Paws best of luck this weekend. Have a fantastic time, enjoy and hope the temperature comes down a notch or two for you!

Happy sunny running all of you.

Moshi I feel for you - I had the same thing with my hotmail account a while back and was also so embarrassed. Luckily most seemed to realise but god knows what the others thought. It happened twice then I changed my password to something really long and complicated and it's been ok since. I still get locked out of my account sometimes because someone has tried to enter the wrong password too many times, but that's easily fixed. I now use a different account for personal emails and that one just for junk mail/shopping. I also deleted all the contacts on it, as they pop up anyway when I type in the first couple of letters. Quite a pain in the !

Angechica I find the ones with the earloops are the only ones that stay on my ears, so you could try those.

No run for me today, so either going to go for a walk or a bike ride - depending on what I can persuade my ds's to join me on.

Oh no Moshi, what a 'mare!!! Have you got virus protectionon your pc? Would be worth giving it a scanand then contact Yahoo to see what they advise.

You would hope anyone with a bit of sense would realise you hadn't sent the emails yourself but obviously not given that woman's response!!

quick hijack, running ladies. Could I just ask if anyone runs with an iPod etc. and if so has any recommendations for some headphones that are comfortable but that actually stay in your ears? normal ear buds just fall out of mine and so do even the ear buds with gel. TIA!

Oh no Moshi.......not sure there is anything you can do other than close the account like you already have. Maybe someone else is a bit more IT savvy on here?

How thick must that woman be to think you chose to send that stuff?

Don't know what happened there, should read LSR for me today then lunch with some girls......

youmakemewanna well done on 8.5 miles, that's a good distance! Hasn't the weather been amazing recently!

MrsWeds I think the trainers arrived yesterday when I was at work, have a card saying there is a parcel to collect at the depot. Will get them today, am excited

Well last night I managed 5.4 miles in 43.02. What is all that about? I did 10k in 56 something on Sunday, so last night I was faster, no way would I have run one more mile as slowly as 16 mins. If I'd have ran like that on Sun I would have beaten my mate Obviously on race day i get too nervous. I failed 4 driving tests due to nerves.....lunch with 3 girls I used to work with as one had a baby 6 weeks ago so get to meet him and have loads of cuddles.

Happy Friday everyone!

Hi Peach I''m hoping to get the results next weds and am really hoping for a simple answer/quick fix. I bet that won't be the case! Thankyou for asking though

I managed a 8.5mile run today (in 1 hour 25 minutes ) but I did enjoy it; the weather was lovely; sunny but cool.

Happy running everyone!

Rookie tip of the day: imagine Paula Radcliffe is waching you run...

Hi All. Lol at cestlavie thinking he was overtaken by Moshi! How funny.

Paws Good luck!!!! Hope the weather is just how you want it.

Gorgeous day in North Yorks again. Ds off to football training so I am going to do pyramid training around the pitch (jog 3 sides, sprint one/jog 2 sides, sprint 2 etc) Might get some funny looks off other parents though......

penguin, am another pregnant person on this thread. I am just taking it easy, as although I have been running properly for the last 3 years, I didn't run when pregnant with DD so it's all new to me and just seeing how it goes. Not sure there is much point in you entering a race as you won't be able to push yourself, unless you wanted to join in for the hell of it! Reading all the training and marathon stories here makes me want to do something too, but think it will have to wait!

Have been feeling not too bad and did 3 miles on Monday which was fine. Felt sick before and after but not during so that was nice.

Also had a little scan yesterday for reassurance. All fine, measuring exactly 7 weeks so felt massive amount of relief, for now!

Hope the tapering jitters aren't affecting our marathoners too much.

When do you get your test results Youmake? Maybe you should take it easy till then if you are struggling a bit, hopefully something easy to fix

Nice one on the fartlek cestlavie. Yes I think it can be used as an excuse not to work so hard, but on the other hand, you can find yourself working very hard through pure exhuberance!! Like the idea of you "treating yourself" to a 4 mile recovery run

Well done doing a temp run in this heat thecoo, a salty layer is a badge of honour!

As to shorts, hmmm, well mine are capri length (tight ones) and I ain't going any shorter

Really keeping my fingers crossed that it's a bit cooler on Sunday paws, am sure it being on the coast will help, and I think you'll do great and have an awesome day.

at sfx scaring children and dogs - you're not alone!

Paws I do hope the weather cools down a bit for you, but I'm sure once you get into your groove you'll be fine regardless. Just drink lots!

I did a 5 mile run with 3 miles at tempo pace in the middle, and it went well despite the heat. I had that thin layer of salt that you mention when I got back though cestlavie!

I used my heart rate monitor for the first time in ages and it said I burned over 800 calories. However Runkeeper said just over 500 and another calorie counter website I found said just under 500 at the average pace I ran. My heart rate does go alarmingly high though, so I think that's why the heart rate monitor gets a bit carried away in its estimate. Apparently my ave was 180 beats per minute. As I'm 40 that should be my max heart rate, but I can go a lot higher than that... maybe I have alien genes in me.

I did my first 5k race in 30 degrees in the shade, pouring water over head helped, I thought I might die but the excitement made me run along at a good pace

I like the idea of cycling shorts but might refrain for a while and keep to capri pants for fear of scaring dogs and young children

I can imagine your weather concerns paws. Hopefully it'll stay below 20 degrees which is always my ideal limit - when I ran Nottingham HM last year it was 24 degrees and I was almost frantic trying to run bits of shade to run in. By the time I finished my face had a fine layer of salt all over it from sweating (lovely!).

PenguinArmy I know what you mean. It's really hard to get the motivation to push yourself without something to aim for. In the end I've had to sign up for a random half just so I've got a target to aim for otherwise I just get to a critical point and find it hard to go beyond there. Are there any smaller events you could aim for (fun runs, 5ks?)

Interested to hear all these things about gels. I tried once and it tasted like cat sick and didn't have any obvious benefit so I've kind of stayed clear since! (Like the idea of jelly beans much better...) I tend to have a couple of bananas just before a longer race and then run with Lucozade Sport.

Still staying with new training regime. Did fartlek yesterday over 5 miles which was pretty good surprisingly, for someone who's quite anal about tracking distances and times. Quite bizarre just to listen to your body rather than your GPS though I think you have to be pretty disciplined to make fartlek really work (which I'm not sure I am).

And treated myself to a 4 mile recovery run today in the sunshine which was just gorgeous - no targets, no time pressure, just listening to The Streets in the sun. I think I was passed by Moshi at one point actually - or rather some woman went past me in a lycra clad blur in the park at a speed which made me wince (sounds like Moshi ne c'est pas??!)

Thanks sfxmum have been obsessively checking the weather - the forecast seems all over the place though, anywhere between 13 degrees with light showers to 21 degrees with no cloud!

Just done my last run - 2 miles jogged with the dog. Poor dog came in panting and puffing due to the warmth and the fact that I pushed the poor old pooch further than a mile - hard to believe he's capable of sprinting at 45 mph!

I'm quite tempted to put my name down for the Chester marathon in October, which crosses from England to Wales and back. I quite like the idea of crossing a border in the course of a marathon!

Best of luck Paws have a great time should be gorgeous