Huevón

2016 was brilliant: the conditions were good and I’d stuck to the training plan which meant I managed to keep up an even pace before tailing off a bit at mile 25. Got home in 3:31, so a minute off target but still happy enough! What seemed to help was having a plan for fuelling during the race: I can’t stand the energy gels so carried two bars of chocolate Kendal mint cake instead to eat at miles 7, 13, 18 and 22. That helped both in terms of energy but also mentally, as it kind of broke the race up into chunks which meant you could just focus on / look forward to getting to the next chocolate fix rather than worrying about the number of miles remaining! 2018 on the other hand was absolute carnage: it was that year with the crazy heat in April and the entire course was like a battlefield with runners receiving medical attention everywhere. Also I hadn’t stuck to the training plan, hadn’t done enough long training runs, and so by the time I got to mile 8 I was fucked. I basically half ran, half walked the remaining 18 miles, and couldn’t wait to get out of there away from the noise, the crowds and the bastard in a tree costume who kept overtaking me each time I stopped. I don’t think there’s any rocket science to marathons to be honest, main thing is that in my experience at least you can’t get away with not doing the training and expect to wing it on the day, as you can (to an extent) with 10ks or even halves. Also, if you know someone or have the spare cash, I think getting regular physio / sports massage during the training period helps enormously, as your body is taking a helluva pounding and the last thing you want is for something to break or go ping two weeks before the event! I’m actually doing London again this year, still quite unfit so hoping to use this thread for some motivation to get my arse back into gear!

That’s ace, will it be your first marathon? I’ve been lucky enough to do London twice (2016, 2018) and it’s mind-blowing: just a wall of noise, colour, music and people. Depending on pace you might get over Tower Bridge in time to see the elites coming back past you on the opposite side of the road: it’s pretty humbling to see up close just how fast and effortless they make it look.

When the feeling’s gone and you can’t go on

Never realised that Crayola had moved into the tattoo business.

Waiting to see what kind of mental contortions they come up with to illustrate how this request to postpone is completely different from, and therefore completely justified compared to our own request to postpone..

Give it Esky

Lived and studied in Santiago, but was in the country for a full year so got to see most of the best bits. Some of the scenery in the southern part is out of this world.

Yeah, literally speaking it’s ‘big egg’ but depending on the context it can mean all sorts of things: mate, dude, bellend, idiot, you name it. Also the greater the elongation of the ‘o’ the greater the degree of mateness / dudeness / bellendery being implied.

Lived in Chile many years ago where ‘huevón’ was almost a carbon copy of ‘lid’ in terms of meaning / frequency of use / way of demonstrating uber-Chilean credentials.

The lack of investment in the January window makes a bit more sense within the context of this ESL fiasco. If a top four place - and by extension being in the CL - was irrelevant to their grand plan, little point spending money chasing it..

Spectacular OG that