And they're off
So now I’ve done the extra day to make 183, I’m definitely more than half way through the challenge… Hurrah.
In that time, I’ve ran 725.94 miles, almost 177 miles ahead of my orginal three mile a day schedule. I’ve ran for more than 100 hours solid and my heart has beat more than a million times on runs!
As part of my training for the Brighton Marathon, I had the Water of Life Half Marathon booked in today…
And he's back
It’s held annually and excellently organised by Purple Patch Running and raises money for water projects in Africa, it also takes place by the side of the Thames in the stunning Buckinghamshire countryside at Bisham Abbey, the national sports centre.
Laura and I were up early this morning to get there, the drive over was pretty easy, less than an hour, the sun was out after the little bit of rain last night and there was a real family atmosphere about the event with kids races while the adults were out. Despite following the same schedule as the last time I ran a half marathon in Portsmouth last month though, I wasn’t feeling too grand at the start. I put most of it down to the fact my legs were feeling pretty stiff from the week’s runs, nerves, a little trepidation about the course which was, ostensibly, all off road, the fact I’d hardly slept last night and a slightly dodgy tummy from yesterday that had left me feeling dehydrated.
The post-race rubdown
After just a mile, I was already starting to feel like deciding to run it was a bad idea and two miles in, when we had to start criss-crossing the river via a series of bridges with steps up and down, I was convinced it was a bad idea and decided to slow down and just enjoy the scenery, which was amazing.
By half way though, I began to perk up and started making some inroads on people in front of me, passing a few of the 600 or so people running and completed the second half of the race at a much faster pace, even with enough energy for a sprint finish to leave the few people around me behind.
My 1:53 time was no where near my 1:48 PB from Portsmouth but I put that down to the bridges, the number of gates we had to open and close on the way, the mud and the fact that my first half of the race was rubbish. Still, I was glad to finish pretty high up – Laura reckons top 100 – so not too bad an effort after all.
Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run
Miles today: 12.96
Target: 549
Miles to date: 725.94
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