In reply to all:
Thanks for everyones advice and encouragement/discouragement.
I’m under no illusion that the prep and race will be nothing but an uphill struggle hence the reason I asked for advice and tips from you guys.
Just to put things in perspective a bit I have, and I am not naïve enough to suggest this experience/training is anyway near enough for the marathon distance, had some good runs in the last few months while out in Europe including Alps-The grand Sud Balcony from Montets to Flegere via Lac Blanc circa 900^, Chamonix/Lac Bleu circa 800^. Pyrenees- Gavarnie to Soldats circa 700^ and also a lot of MTB’ing and road running so my core strength is pretty good.
Over 80% of my running is done on Trails/Mountains.
My main concerns are obviously overdoing the prep/training and causing an injury, Nutrition on the actual race and not being able ‘condition’ my body for 26 miles of, hopefully, non-stop running.
Mental strength is there in abundance and that may pose a problem in itself!!
I’ll take on board the suggestions about mileage training and will start with walking the route tomorrow and breaking it down into 2 or 3 sections for training runs which I’ll do between now and the end of Nov. I’ll mix that up with road runs, including some interval training and my usual 10k mountain run. There are a few training plans on the internet so I’ll gleam as much info from them as poss in regards to distance for training runs.
Can’t wait.