Building to a peak.

Although I was selected for British team in Osaka in the marathon I decided against it. I love competing for country and it's always such a great honour to be chosen to toe the start line in a major championships. That said, my personal goal has always been to improve my times over the marathon distance and Osaka wasn't going to be the place to try and run quick. The humidity and conditions as well as the tough course meant it was going to be a hard event. I normally thrive on toughness and would have loved this challenge but with my faster time focus and longer term Beijing Olympic ambitions I decided the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon would better suit my needs.

Typically from a base level of fitness I allow a 12 week marathon build up. This time I was cutting it quite fine as surgery for a hernia came at this time. I was very thorough with my rehab and sensible with my build up post op and slowly I've been ticking off the miles and banking the sessions. Recently I've been racing, infact, every week for the past 3 weeks!