Its like the run up to Christmas, when you’re excited to see what Santa brings but you’re not sure if you’re on the nice list or the naughty list.

Its like the day after the final dress rehearsal, when you’re keen to get on the stage and greet the audience but you’re not sure you can remember your lines.

Its like getting to the final interview for your dream job, knowing it’s perfect and you can do it, but scared you’ll say something stupid and wreck it all at the last moment.

So you have to remind yourself that in the past you’ve always been on the nice list. You’ve never completely forgotten your lines. You know what to do.

Race number collected, chip ready and waiting on your shoe, pace strategy studied, route memorised.

You’ve hit all your long runs. The weather’s looking good. You know how you’re getting there and what’s going in your bag.

Lines learnt.

And come the big day, you know all you have to do is just start running. Just start running and see what happens. Run, smile, wave, soak it up. Above all else enjoy the day with those other thousands, who will also just start running. We happy few, we dreamers of dreams, we marathon runners.

That’s it. Nothing more to say. Nothing more you can do except breathe.

Breathe and hydrate.

Good luck to everyone running the London Marathon this Sunday – the hard work is all done now, time to enjoy the spoils of the training! Enjoy, happy running to everyone and have an amazing day!