Sunday 18 January 2015

Half marathon: Janathon day 18

I was supposed to run the Folksworth 15 today (15 mile race up near Stilton), but I decided to give the race a miss after I decided I hadn't done enough training. My marathon plan called for 12 miles, but a friend asked on Facebook if anyone fancied a 13 mile run on the Letchworth Greenway, at a pace somewhere between 9 and 10 min/mile. It sounded OK to me so I said I would go.

We met at 6:30 am, which meant I needed my headtorch for the first hour. It was quite fun running in the dark. I would never do this route on my own in the dark, I don't mind running on the roads in the dark, but not off-road. I felt really tired after only the first half mile, bodyshock or the immediate big hill or something, but it soon passed. I shrieked like a cat when an old man materialised in a bush, but I managed to wish him "Good Morning". We passed another runner after about 3 miles (he had no headtorch and was wearing black, very ninja-like) then a couple of men, one of whom I recognised as an old uni friend. We saw them again at mile 11, they were running the same route, so we stopped to say hello and make introductions.

Pace-wise, we maintained between 9 and 10 min/mile pace, about half the run was 9 min pace and the rest nearer 9:30, and miles approaching 10 min/mile were when we stopped to chat or cross the road. I felt very tired at the end, and having to run past my car for a minute to make the distance 13.1 miles was very hard! Strava says this run was two-thirds endurance and a third tempo, which I would agree with and am very pleased with.


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