Week 15 - 22/4/09, Wednesday

Time of day: 09:14

Distance: 18.02 miles

Time: 3:18:16 (running time)

Weather: Cloudy to start, then sunny


I was feeling quite nervous at the prospect of this run. I really have been wondering what I've let myself in for. I do get this feeling of dread the night before a long run, but once I start running I feel much better, it's like I get into a different head space.

I was keen to get started as soon as we took the kids to school, and actually wanted to run with them to school to get the first mile out of the way, but Steve had been out for a works meal last night and so was keen for a bit of lie in. He was, to his credit, up and raring to go by the time I got back from school.

I seemed to be going at a ridiculously slow pace for the first few miles, in fact I began to wonder whether my garmin was working properly, and actually looking back at the figures they don't seem to correlate with what was showing up as I was running. Strange.

I made my first stop for water after 6 miles, a third of the way through. I was still feeling pretty fresh and enthusiastic and even did an extra few metres to pose for the camera! This part of the run had been along a busy road.

I planned my next stop at 10 miles for gatorade and fruit pastilles. This was a more pleasant section of the run, through a quiet residential area, over the train bridge before reaching a busy shopping area. It was here, at about 9 miles that I lost Steve. He was cycling behind me and the suddenly he was gone. After about another 3/4 of a mile I was starting to get worried, where was he? Then I started getting a bit ratty. I was about 8 miles from home, hungry, thirsty and tired, and now deserted. Just at this point I heard a friendly shout behind me "Here I am, I'm right here". Thank goodness!

Steve had bought a bar of dairy milk and a bounty. Mmm which would I like? I opted for 2 squares of dairy milk. Wow. I'm telling you, that was the best chocolate I had ever tasted.
I followed that with gatorade and 2 fruit pastilles. Food takes on a whole new meaning when you really really do need to eat.

At this point I realised that I wasn't far enough away from home. If I ran straight home it would only be just over 16 miles and I was planning 18 miles. I decided to do a detour down one road and back up the next one. This was probably the low point of the run. I was running an extra mile but was going to end up a couple of hundred metres further down the road. Psychologically this was very discouraging.

It's funny how you go through these ups and downs on a long run. One minute I was feeling in the depths of depression "Why, Oh why did I ever think this would be a good idea" to "I'm feeling GREAT! I'm a marathon runner, nothing is going to stop me".

At 14 miles we made another refreshment stop. I was still going to be short by about a mile so we took a few back roads, discovering places that we never even knew existed. That made it more interesting.

Finally, we arrived back in Barnwood Park, just a quarter of a mile from home. 18 miles! I'd done it. I resisted the urge to rip a sandwich out of the hands of a man sitting on the park bench.

The post run shower revealed all the broken bits of skin that the endorphins had disguised. Then it was a smoked mackerel salad with a slice of bread and butter, followed by an apple. I felt so virtuous.