Sunday 22 November 2009

Ton Up, 15.4 miles

That's 100 miles covered towards my target of 1000. Today's long run was anticipated to be very wet as it seems to have been raining for a week and the forecast was for heavy showers.

Surprisingly it was dry at 0630 and after a slight delay to my departure I was off to Niall's for the 0650 meet. The call had been for a run to Sherards Wood and back, which is somewhere in the region of 13 miles.

We were 4, Simon was doing the Willows 10k and so it was Dave, Paul, Niall and myself. We set off with the rain looking likely but somehow it didn't happen and in fact it brightened up and was a lovely morning.

The roads were very wet, as were the trails, mudbath would be a good description. However, we pressed on at a kind of 8-8.30 pace. A bit faster than I'd have liked so I threw in the odd slow bit to try and get the lads to take it easy. It kind of worked but then the trails became so bad that it wasn't an issue and the pace slowed to nearer 9's.

We made it to Sherards Wood in one piece. It seemed very easy and fast. Then the fun began as Niall took us on a route through the woods. It involved a steep section which was desparately boggy. Niall skipped through it, I was torn to shreds by a thorn bush and nearly went head first into the mud, Dave and Paul had similar near misses but somehow we made it to the bottom. I was bleeding badly and my new compression socks were already trashed.

The route home had a Brocket Hall extension added by Niall. Very pleasant it was too as we made our way across the golf course.

From there it was known territory and we split at Crabtree Lane so that I could head home. By the time I got home I'd done 15.4 miles, I think that's my longest run ever. Oh and that makes 100.1miles completed. Nice one.

No comments:

Post a Comment