Oakley 20 mile race

Today I ran in my first ever 20 mile race; I have done shorter and longer distances but never 20 miles. I was looking forward to it as I was treating it as my long training run for the week and normally I have to do these on my own and I must admit that I do find these long runs really hard (mentally) when I am on my own.

The race was superb; the weather was sunny (although the wind was tough going at times) and the course was very scenic. It was undulating but I found it useful to have some hills in my training, normally my routes in Milton Keynes are flat (with the occasional incline) but we did have to run up some tough hills today and it was a good challenge. I will definitely be looking to run this again next year and as a bonus we got a really nice hoodie instead of a medal!

I felt strong throughout the run which has also given me confidence for the marathon. I am thinking I may need to do one or two more longer runs (probably another 20 miles this coming weekend followed by maybe an 18 mile run the week after) and then it will be time to taper J I am actually getting very excited about the marathon as its now only 4 weeks away!

If anyone is interested in the route and my stats for the race, they can be found here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30798998

Training going well

I have had a good few long runs over the past few weekends; I have done a 17 and 18 mile and then last Friday, straight after work I did a good (slightly faster) 15 ½ mile run. Tomorrow sees me running in the Oakley 20 mile race and I am looking forward to it although I am told it is quite a tough undulating course!

Milton Keynes Half Marathon

My friend and I had a really good race at the MK Half Marathon today. The weather was perfect and the organisation of the race was superb. It was a new course this year starting outside of the Exscape building and it was a well attended race. It actually felt (atmosphere wise) a little like the start of a major marathon, it was really good. The course was also well thought out and very enjoyable although I think my friend would disagree about the final hill coming into the finish J Excellent race and I will definitely be entering this one again next year.

A solid 10k run this evening which at times resembled both a cross country course and a steeple chase race!

After work my friend and I headed out to do a 10k run; we normally do a longer run (between 8-10 miles) but as we are both running in the MK Half Marathon this coming Sunday we have reduced our mileage this week and decided this evening to do a faster but shorter run instead. So a 10k route from the Open University up to Willen Lake (via Woughton Park) around the first lake and then back again; simple we thought – well it would have been if the paths hadn’t been flooded. The problem was that once we had navigated ourselves safely around a few puddles we were committed and it just got worse! The first major hurdle was a bridge that was no longer a bridge but had been lost in the water, all that remained were the wooden sides of the bridge that we had to climb on and along to get across, this was soon followed by a few minutes of side stepping and balancing on metal fencing to get across the next large puddle (puddle in this situation really doesn’t do it justice, ‘small lake’ would be more appropriate!). You really had to be there to truly appreciate what we had to climb over and along just to get to Willen Lake! The return route was quickly re-thought and I am pleased to report free of any water obstacles! At least we had a good laugh about the situation and the the rest of the run was solid and fast, even if we did leave a trail of mud behind us :-)