Toughing it out

Here I am in the middle of marathon training. That I got here is a bit of a surprise to me, and I'm pleased I've even made it this far without chucking it all in in favour of fell racing, or picked up an injury.
I'm here at the top of the hill, right in that period four weeks before race day. Behind me a steadily climbing slope of mileage, lots of it put in on dark cold wet roads, which I look back on with some satisfaction. However this is always going to be the tough part, maintaining high miles for a couple more weeks and fending off bugs, fatigue and loss of mojo. There's some extra tough in the mix in the form of a big angry bruise on my left hip, right on those muscles which always sing with pain even when I'm training to normal levels. Skidded off the bike on wet cobbles. Bang, extra pain for your intensest weeks. But suffering is what marathoning is all about.
I've had to fight the urge to wave the white flag, and even told myself Askwith-style this morning 'if you can't do this training run in the cold fog with an aching hip then you're not going to complete your marathon in your target time'
So I'm hanging on, clinging on in the hope that no more big disasters arrive in the next few weeks. I've got the added frisson of being in London to get on terms with my least favourite part of the course next week. I'm gritting my teeth already.