Taper time!

2 weeks out, new shoes, on holiday in Vic and trying to squeeze in a couple of runs to keep the legs ticking over in prep for the half. Still concerned about being underdone but trying to take the positive things from the previous few weeks caused me to reflect a bit more deeply.
I had a forced layoff for 8 days due to gout, but that allowed those large blisters to almost fully heal and also reduced the pounding my planterfascia muscles were taking by running 5 days/week with decent distances covered. With that in mind, my aim now was just to turn the legs over and take it easy and hopefully be fresh and healed up for the HM.
So had a nice 5-6k run along the beach on the Mornington peninsula, very pleasant running past all those cool little beach huts that are painted so vibrantly, and even saw a seal resting under the jetty! Although it was a little cool, I managed to warm up ok and whilst the left foot was a bit tender (PF), it didn't cause me too much discomfort on such a short run. Had another 6k effort 3 days later around Richmond in Melbourne and again the foot was tender but ok. I had a final run 2 days before the HM of about 5-6k again and felt ok but concerned over last month's preparation and how it would impact me on the day. The previous 3 and a half weeks had seen 8 days of no running, and then only 4 runs of short distances no longer than 6k in the fortnight leading up. Not exactly ideal but best I could manage under the circumstances and it was too late to change anything so best to 'just get out there and do it' on Sunday.
The Friday night prior, our little running group had organised to get together af Caffe Primo to do some carb loading and team bonding, even though I was the only one now actually competing.
It's great to have that support and camaradarie among the group, and a few of the members had even arranged to man a drink station so they could help out and support me as well. We discovered later that they had been allocated to the stations on West beach rd, which was part of the full marathon course, not the half, but great that they participated anyway, although I could certainly have used their support on the day. Had a great pasta feed anyway, but had a glass of red with the meal, only my second for the day, and later started to get a familiar tingling in my big toe that warned ' gout is on it's way'.
Couldn't believe my luck that 36 hours b4 the half my big toe was starting to throb, but I managed to get all the pills necessary down my throat immediately and again throughout the night and next day and avoided a full scale attack. I have to say though that those anti-inflammatories make me feel pretty ordinary whilst taking them, particularily in the guts.
Anyway, I was now hopefully not going to suffer from gout during the race, and whilst I was still carrying a head cold from the last week, I was as ready as I was ever going to be.