Marathon is over now. I did it. Unfortunatelly with a terrible cold, but was good indeed. Time was 4h and 09′, not bad one taking into account the situation. BUT….

Not satisfied of the result I spent other two weeks to prepare an Half Marathon, this time very close to my house – target was to decrease my personal best on the 21,1 KM.

Today I did it, closing the race in 1h 37′ – I’m really satisfied – I proved myself that in the right condition I can reach the target based on my potential. Happy.

The next? I will see.

In this page I will report My Way to Athens. I estimated “My Way to Athens” in 1.100 km running: 1.058 km training plus the 42 km from Marathon to Athens.

The air distance from my house to Marathon is almost 1.058 km so that is funny that I have to train almost the same distance before starting the real marathon from Marathon. Who tried the Marathon pretty know that to do it is not a matter to run ONLY 42,2 km: that is simply the last act. Here is where I am now: progressing…….. but still a lot to do.

As at October the 22nd (85% reached – 15% to go!!):

Already “simulated landing” in Greece happened few weeks ago, but still 100 km to do before the Marathon starts – simply 2,5 Marathons (again) but it is an easy call after the two “long” sessions done in the last 4 weeks.

4 weeks ago was the case of Ascoli – San Benedetto (33,3 KM) – I did it in 30 seconds under 3 hours (not bad). It was funny the final part: I was 300m from the ending line and the speaker detected my racing number and started referring to me saying “Here you are the last two runners that might will be under 3 hours” and all the people around started clapping. I was so tired and not able to speed up. Then the speaker said “still 30 seconds to be under 3 hours”. I was still 150 meters from the line, really tired, almost died. Then you discover somewhere in your body the power to accelerate as I did reaching the target for no more than 10 second. Those 10 seconds costed me 15 minutes of recovery laying on the ground, but I did it.

Last Saturday I did the last “long” before the Marathon – 30 KM. I decided to simulate all the pre-element of the Athens Marathon. Wake up 6 o’clock; light breakfast; drinking a lot; wearing the shorts, the socks, the T-shirt I chose I wear during the Marathon. Everything worked pretty well, but this is not yet said will work again during the Marathon but for sure is a good sign. Only one doubt popped up the next day – knees troubles, but something needs to be not perfect otherwise I start to be suspicious.

So now only 10 training session and then Marathon will starts!!

As at July the 24th (30% reached – 70% to go!!):

still 42 km to do before July ends – simply a Marathon (again) but it is an easy call …. I can split even by 4 as “eating an elephant is easier in slices”….

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Previous update as at July the 12th:

The Marathon will start the 9th of November and in the three months before is sane to run almost 700 km to properly train for the 42,2 km.

I estimated the pre-preparation in the remaining 358 km, those kms have to be done before the 9th of August with the main target to “adjust” my weight to 78 kg from the current 82. This is necessary because the less is your weight the less you will suffer.

To complete the pre-preparation I have still to run 150 km in July and I did only 40 till today. The plan is to have other 10 workouts of 11 km in average.