Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Eleven Happy Miles
by Russell Turner - 19:23 on 24 February 2019
Nine weeks until The Big Day in London, so here’s a marathon update for those who don’t follow me on Twitter.
Today my 11-mile run coincided with cool, sun and no wind: just right. So the shorts made their first appearance this year, as did the 2018 finisher’s T-shirt, and the whole lot contributed to a very comfortable running day – so good that my first couple of miles felt easy but turned out to be around 10:10 min/mile. That’s fast for me.
I thought I’d slowed it down a bit after that but the next couple of miles were even faster at 10:00 and 9:38 and still feeling comfortable so I decided to go for broke. Mile 5 was 9:35 and Mile 6 9:00. I rounded it off with a final 0.2 miles at 8:03 to reach 10k in a new PB. Annoyingly, that was 1:00:16. Maybe I’ll crack the hour when I’m trying from the start, assuming I get such good conditions again.
I took a 2min break at 7 miles when I got back to where I’d left my water and gels, having decided very quickly I couldn’t run with the water belt. I’ll keep looking for a better one. I set off on the final four miles at a slowish jogging pace but unconsciously speeded up for the last three miles, including a 90sec walk, to around 10:23.
The whole 11 miles took 1:51:57, and I could have done more. I was a very happy runner. My immediate target is a 2hr 20 half marathon, which at this rate I’ll have a good chance of achieving. My dream of a sub 5hr marathon is still alive, though maybe not at London where I’ll settle for 5:15. Yorkshire is my real target. Time will tell.
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