I’m still standing… It is day 6, and I woke up feeling sore. I say woke up, but in truth, I didn’t really sleep last night. When I got out of bed, my garmin said my training readiness was poor, and my sleep was poor because I needed to rest and recover. That’s all well and good, but I’ve still got 5 more marathons to complete. On 6 April 2023, I went to the start not expecting much. It is the slower of the two routes, and so far, I’ve run a 4:26 and a 4:24, so I was hoping for a sub 4:30. Catch up with previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5.
Today’s run was adversity: a difficult or unpleasant situation. That’s certainly what I felt at the start. Everything felt tired, so it was just about moving forward and getting it done.
It was good to see the familiar faces at the start, with obvious struggles kicking in, but everyone still turning up. I didn’t hang around and got straight out for my first lap. It was pretty miserable today, overcast and light drizzle. It was also really humid, I got so hot and was sweating so much. But, my natural pace was sub 9 min miles, so I thought I would see how long I could hold on.
I absolutely expected to slow down before halfway, but the only time I slowed was at the aid station when I stopped for a drink and some sweets, or odd photo. Despite feeling so tired and my legs screaming at me, I just kept running. I ran alone, I was hot, sweating, tired, but I was running sub 9 min miles. When I got to 20 miles, I felt like there was a risk I would slow down, and I had a little buffer. At this point, I thought my first sub 4 of the week was a real possibility. Instead of allowing myself to slow down slightly and still scrap a sub 4, I sped up. I started running at 8:40 Pace and kept pushing myself.
Day 6. My fastest marathon of the 6 days by over 17 minutes and over 27 minutes faster than the previous 2 in this direction. I don’t know where that came from, I don’t expect to run this fast tomorrow, and I don’t know what impact it will have. But I feel great to have achieved 3:57:06 on day 6.
I have received a few donations over the last couple of days and have now raised over £750 for Cancer Research. I have a £2,000 target, and it would be great if you could help me achieve it. The button below will take you to my fundraising page.
pickupthepacepaul 
How ma y people are participating in This challenge? Have people dropped out as the days go on?
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Hi hillary, there are probably around 70 people doing every day with others coming to do the odd day.
Lots of people are doing a half marathon, some are doing ultra. There don’t tend to be drop outs, we all support each other through the laps and there isn’t pressure for time, there are some going very slowly up and down, walking for much of it. So always someone to pick you up when you need it
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