Marathon plans on hold

The marathon is a tough mistress at the best of times as anyone who has prepared for one can testify. The last couple of months preparation has been far from ideal with disrupted training in Kenya in January then some illness in January causing me to re-evaluate my goals for a spring marathon race. As recently as a couple of weeks ago I was still confident of being in shape to run a PB but another bit of ill health kept me away from Silverstone at the weekend and has been the final nail in the coffin so I’ve decided to abandon plans for a spring marathon this year.

Not surprisingly I’m very frustrated not to be able to build on my 2.18 last autumn but the marathon is such a big undertaking that racing it when less than fully prepared is asking for trouble. Ultimately I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice the couple of months recovery time just to perform at the same level I have before. After thinking about it long and hard I would rather get myself fully healthy and have a good summer racing season before making another step forward in the autumn.