The Business End

8 Days to Go

The big day looms ever closer, this time next week I'll probably be entertaining thoughts of an early night before the race when in reality I'll be lying awake all night. Before then, I reached another milestone with my final session of speed work of the whole programme.

To the general bemusement of my running comrades, I decided to enter the annual BRAT 5k that takes place around Rowheath. People wondered why on earth I was doing it a week before the race but there was method in my madness. 'The Plan' called for 8 miles running with 3 x 1500 hard reps, so I thought that an actual 5k race would be an adequate substitute.

There is also the fact that this particular race and I have unfinished business. It was the first proper race that I ever ran - only a few weeks after joining the club and only to try and impress a girl. After wheezing my way around for the first time and cursing myself for my stupidity I developed a special hatred for the event - compounded by the subsequent three years when I failed to dip under 20 minutes on each occasion.

This year, the race again lived up to billing with a hard slog over two laps leaving me absolutely knackered at the end. That said, I did manage to knock twenty seconds off last year's time so a good psychological boost for next week. No doubt despite my protestations I'll be back again next year - who knows, I might even learn to pace it properly rather than going all guns blazing at the downhill start and frantically trying to hang on at the end...

One more 12 mile run booked in for Sunday and then it's basically all over bar the shouting. Time to start packing.