voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

Two days till the marathon and I am getting nervous about heading to Paris. Although as I type this I am on a train back from Leighton Buzzard which has made me look forward to Paris. A small market town with market folk in it. Same surnames, smell like cabbage folk. As mentioned in the last posting its tapering time and carbo-loading. Had a huge pasta dish yesterday for lunch followed by a baked potato covered in Sarah’s secret sauce left over from our spaghetti blowyournose the evening before. Been really good in terms of drinking as well, although on Wednesday night Sarah brought home some wine we had ordered from the Sunday Times wine club and we got stuck into an Argentinian Red.

We Eurostar it to Paris tomorrow incredibly early, when we leave home the kebab shops will just be closing and tube engineering works over-running. Once we arrive we are going to have a short jog then find the expo to pick up our race pack. Then a relaxing evening carbo-loading and not drinking. Sunday morning we are up early to eat and get to the start. I know nerves will be playing a big part so they better have a lot of porter-loos. One of the features of this years race is the ability to get txt messages of how runners are doing. I have registered my phone so I’ll get the splits for the two of us. I’ll post those on here so you can see if I kept in the same postcode as her throughout the race.

Been reading an article on race tactics and it talks of visualisation and repeating mantra’s to yourself for motivation. Got Chariots of Fire stuck in my head still. The clip below is how I picture myself finishing. Again this is a motivational thing so my finish will be a little different, 1. It won’t be the final of an Olympic event, 2. I will not be trying to win the race 3. I will not go into the history books and have my race immortilised in film. But on the positive I’ll have comfier shoes on and cooler looking clothes. I also have a problem with “is he famous” syndrome. Given my Scottish Sean Connery type looks, tall well built frame and very fluid running style a lot of people see me and think “Isn’t he from the TV”, “Is he not a famous celebrity running for charity”. I have had to learn to live with this much the same as someone like Matt Damon, etc. But don’t worry I will focus on the run and dream about that drink after the race.

In case your wondering about the doctors note, I have had to self-certify myself for the race. Dr. J Bourne. The cardiologist said I was in perfect shape to run but did not give me a note in time, so I have created one which hopefully will get past the French officials. Luckily with 35000 runners doctors notes I should be okay. I’ll let you all know how I get on when I get back on Tuesday unlessyou see me on the news for streaking up the Eiffel Tower after too much to drink.

Chariots of Fire Clip