Just four and a half weeks to go and I can almost smell the sweat, Vaseline and isotonic drinks as April 22 gets ever more imminent.

Help! For the first time in my training, the marathon feels less like an abstract goal, good to justify my greediness at meal times, and more like a terrifying reality. This is actually going to happen. To me.

If you’ll forgive a bit of melodrama (and actually I find that making an existential struggle of my marathon is quite a useful motivation tactic) I feel like I’m gazing into a 26-mile abyss and the abyss is staring back at me.

But what better way to fight the four-week jitters than with a bit of running-themed retail therapy. If you’re lacking self-confidence, you might as well spend lots of money on making yourself look the part. Pimp my kit, as it were.

Run and Become is a wonderful specialist running store in Westminster. Surrounded by knee supports and other bits of not-especially-exciting running gear, I was surprised to find myself feeling like a child in a sweet shop. I only managed to drag myself out after buying an iPod holder, knee support, water bottle and glucose tablets.

Checking myself out in the mirror the next morning with my knee support on, iPod strapped to arm and a running bottle brimming with a sickly-sweet sports drink, I directed a few pumped-up “You gazing at me”s at the abyss and felt ready to run the streets again. Problem solved.

Question of the week: Do you have any pieces of running gear you consider indispensable? Text your answers to 88010 (25p per msg) or email letters@wandsworthguardian.co.uk

Ally is running to raise money for Hemihelp, a charity which supports children with hemiplegia, a condition similar to cerebral palsy which affects one side of the body. Visit www.hemihelp.org

Donate to Ally’s campaign at www.justgiving.com/allycarnwath