Well another day another marathon. A local route I have been looking forward to for a while. The weather forecast was pretty good and so after contemplating doing the northern ladybower watershed I decided to play it safe and stay low. I felt pretty good on this route and made steady progress all the way up cold side to the slippery stones.
Stopped as I took this photo, had a banana and put on a dry T Shirt and then headed home.
At 28k the weekends running hit me and suddenly I found myself walk running with nothing in the tank, despite eating and drinking well throughout the run. So that was it, the rhythm broken and getting cold I added more layers and all my joints started hurting. The run/walk turned to walk/walk and at 32k I phoned the wife to chuck the towel in..
Trouble is that she was at the Bakewell Spectacular watching stunt motorcycles with the boys! No lift there. I walked for the bit. I thought: Right I'm going to stop in the Ladybower and order some late lunch and have a couple of pints and wait till she's back... Bugger, left my cards and money at home.. Right I'll walk home.. and walk I did.
It took bloody ages but with the fairly quick first 2/3rds wasn't actually too bad a finish time all things considered. I am reminded again what a mental game this is. I could have kept going. I should have kept going, I know the low hits me between 25 - 28 k but despite this at the time sometimes you just find yourself walking..
Company in the second half of these challenges is a definitive plus. Suddenly the change of flavour, almost the novelty of it, just gets you or keeps you going. Need to rope more people strategically into this challenge.. Any takers??
This is a stunning route with loads of other people to help distract you along the way. There is an ultra on this course that is about 50 miles long however despite how pretty it is, I think more than one lap would be dull. Especially when we are surrounded by nicer more interesting trails. A low level bad weather trail is the perfect description, probably over harshly, for this route but that doesn't mean I couldn't enjoy it on a sunny fairly calm day. I'll try and get back later in the year and blast this course to put right the wrong from today.
Shoe Choice: Nike Icarus Stealths
Stats. Distance: 41.1 km Elevation: 0.57 km Total Dist: 473.4 km Total Elevation: 7.38 km
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.