Starting marathon training

On Sunday I ran home after a family walk at Shawford  - a combination of the Monarch's Way and the Test Way.  It was about 28km, it took nearly 2.5 hours (including getting lost a couple of times) and I was utterly done for afterwards. Not a contented, happy and hungry sort of tired, but a proper, world-weary ennui sort of tired.  I hobbled around afterwards thinking 'Do I really want to do this marathon thing again?  Do I really want to spend the next 7 weeks pounding around tripping over roots, ploughing through mud and getting stung on big endurance runs when I could do a quick 5k and have a beer?'

The next day we had a family trip to Longleat and I was in quite a lot of discomfort as we walked around.  Strictly no running.  And then on Tuesday I did about 19k, mainly off-road and quite hilly... and it was a breeze.  A swift 9k today and all is well.

I'm not saying that I'm over the hump completely, but this is a classic pattern for the start of endurance-length training... a real period of grey funk before the system starts to respond... and maybe I've reached the end of the beginning. The difference is that now I'm looking forward to marathon season and all that it entails.