One more week to go…
I just can’t believe how quickly the last 3 month passed by.
And how do I feel? Nervous, excited, stressed, happy, energised or tired?
All of that! I feel like in a rollercoaster! Emotionally a lot is going on at the moment!
The last two weeks were difficult as I was away on holiday and ill on the same time. Nothing serious, just a cold, but I felt really weak and with a running nose it’s not great to run. Anyway, you shouldn’t train when you are ill, it can affect your heart muscle.
So here we go… less than 3 weeks before the race and I was on a family holiday, ill and just had the chance to do a hill run and 2 short beach runs! That was so frustrating and I felt terrible while everyone else kept on going with their training. Even when I was back in London I still didn’t feel well. Then I had my 3rd Rabies vaccination done. After that I felt even worse the whole weekend. Aha, I remembered that I had the 2nd Rabies just before I went on holiday. So it could have affected my immune system.
The final week is now on and I’m just back into training.
I have done a fitness and muscle stiffness test for a research project by Mark Hines who wrote the book “The Jungle Marathon: Ultra Endurance Running in the Heart of the Amazon”. The test results were good keeping in mind that I just started running 3 month ago. My overall fitness will walk me though the race but the mental strength is much more important. I just got a boost from this fitness results and good advice from Mark, that’s what I needed.
Oh, I felt great… and I watched another video on youtube ignoring the pain showing in the competitor’s faces. I was just concentrating on the amazing green experience. Another training session later, after finishing a total of 1000 leg exercises and 100 push ups during Park Fitness, I could hardly work back home. I still felt great!
But just a quick look at FB and that information smashed me back to the reality.
The final kilometres were posted!
Jungle Marathon 2012
Stage 1: 22.77km
Stage 2: 23.98km
Stage 3: 37.87km
Stage 4: 37.09km
…END of “100km “race, which is in fact 121.71km this year
Stage 5 is 108.22km
Stage 6 is 22.50km
Total distance is 252.43km
Wow I am speechless! I have to set up my mind for 21 km more than expected.
But I can do it! 121km that’s my new goal! Brazil, I’m on my way… mentally!