Yesterday I got up and was out of the door for my run by 7am. I wasn't looking forward to it. The sky was grey, it was poring with rain and I had 20 miles to do. I wore long leggings but only a tee shirt as I had a feeling it was going to still be relatively warm.
The first 4 miles is tough on this route as it's mostly uphill and very tiring. I decided to stick to the 15:5 run/walk as it went well last week (apart from the last 3 miles which I walked due to the cramp in my calves). Before I left the house I had an Elete electrolyte tablet and had taken 4 gels on the run with me (expecting to take at least 3 of these starting with the first one at 55 minutes), so hopefully cramp wouldn't be an issue, if it was a lack of electrolytes that had caused it.
By 5 miles I was feeling great, and mentally was over one of the hardest parts of the route. I ran this 2 years and one week ago, and had ran the whole way without a walk break. I had also done my fastest 20 miler at that time (despite all the hills on this route) and although I couldn't remember the exact time, it was somewhere in the region of 3 hours and 40 minutes. I wondered how much slower I would be when walking a quarter of it on a run/walk plan.
Next up is a slog through Station Town and a long road through to Hart. The rain was really heavy at this point and I was glad to be wearing a cap so it wasn't hitting me in the face. This part of the run went by OK considering. Huge lorries and vans pulled to the middle of the road quite courteously trying to avoid soaking me, which didn't help to be honest, but I was grateful to them all the same.
By the time I hit Hart it was 12 miles and my right hamstring started to ache. This didn't surprise me, as it had felt quite achy since doing heavy squats on Wednesday (I think I must have a weaker leg!). I decided to try and ignore it.
At 16 miles I felt incredibly tired. Every time I have ran this route it is always the 16 mile point where I feel like this. I wondered if it was psychological, although whether it was or it wasn't, this is where the 15:5 went out of the window and I walked when I needed to and ran when I could. I have a thing now whereby I try to walk no slower than 4mph. On this run I didn't want to walk slow enough that I would do any mile as slow as 13mm. At 17.12 miles I got the first warning signs of cramp. I ignored it and kept running.
At 18 miles I was 5 minutes quicker than last week, although was walking all of the uphills as they made my calves cramp up. I can't actually decide whether the cramp was as bad as last week or whether I refused to let it slow me down too much, but I just kept running as much as possible.
Just short of 20 miles I realised I was close to doing the run in sub 3:35 so put in a sprint finish, doing it in 3:34:48. I was chuffed to do it 5 minutes quicker when on a run/walk, but later found out that my best time previously had been 3:52, so in actual fact I was 17 minutes quicker. Unbelievable.
I was in agony on finishing, felt sick and could barely move as I was hurting so much. Suppose that shows how hard I pushed myself. When I finally managed to get my soaking wet clothes off I found my feet had completely pruned because they had been so wet for so long (although luckily no blisters), and I also had a suntan. How very random!
We then went to Rockcliffe Hall Spa and had a fabulous spa day and a lovely meal and overnight stay.
I feel a bit stiff today, but I'm much better than I expected to be.
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