One week to go

I've not been particularly dedicated about running this week, with a couple of bare 3 mile runs and no interval training at all, unless you count running up the stairs and over the bridge at North Acton station in a desperate yet successful attempt to catch a late night tube after half a bottle of wine.

But with one week to go, I went out for my last 'long' prep run. I'm still pinning all my fitness hopes on the fact I've been dedicated about the long runs, but I've not really been approaching them with the same dedication to nutrition and hydration as I did when marathon training. Gone are the pasta and veggie sauce, and in with the cakes, curries and alcohol.

Miraculously though, I do seem to be able to get round even after such lousy preparation. God knows what speeds I could achieve if I did actually train properly and eat properly but I think we can consider this a control for the experiment!

Today's 10 miles was not much fun although not for the dietary reasons listed above. It was more to do with the route I chose. In a desperate attempt to try and go somewhere new, I decided to head off to the South-west and Southall.  For someone who has lived in this area as long as I have, this was a monumental miscalculation. Getting there was fine, but every local knows that Southall Broadway is always heaving with people. People 8 abreast. Shops have their goods outside the shop, covering half the pavement, and London's biggest and most vibrant Asian community cover the other half.

Negotiating the packed pavements was bad enough but the staring was the worst part. Clearly they do not get a lot of runners on Southall Broadway (because they have more sense and go for somewhere with less people) but those they do get are obviously not white females either. I lost count of the amount of people who actually stopped dead in their tracks just to stare open-mouthed at me and I got shouted at by two men. I don't know much Urdu/Hindi/Punjabi/Gujarati so I was unable to tell whether it was support or abuse but either way, it wasn't the easiest of runs for the self-conscious individual that I am.

On the plus side, it was sunny and I now have had lots of practice at weaving in and out of crowds of people, pushchairs and small children pointing.

I'm actually quite glad that my next extended run will be in a different country, with cleared roads and plenty of other runners, because I am bit fed of up of being a freak for exercising in public. Or exercising at all.

Roll on Brooklyn

LON