Cheltenham's a large town..

...when you run around it! I ran 3 of the 4 legs of the Cheltenham Circular route yesterday. Long run (21 miles) and my toes are in agony today! Lots of mud, hills, gates, stys etc and all done navigating from a set of directions off the web. Well, those are my excuses for taking 3.5 hours to run 21 miles. Actually, that's not too bad considering the terrain and all the stop/starting.

Lovely scenery on the route, especially once I had climbed the escarpment leading up to Seven Springs, could see the whole of Cheltenham from up there.

Right, off to sort my toes out now. They look frostbitten!

Harriers

Cracking run on Tuesday encompassing Cleeve Hill. Nice and hilly and not a bad pace overall (see MB activity below). Perfect running conditions too last night and I think my Bushcombe Lane run on Sunday certainly put some hill training in my legs. I felt much more comfortable last night as compared to last week.

I'm seriously thinking about entering the Cheltenham Circular Challenge on 22 June (see http://www.cheltenhamcircularchallenge.org.uk/). I even thinking about taking on the full marathon distance, a bit crazy but I think I could plod around (the marathon record is 4hr 15min, which demonstrates how difficult it must be!).

We'll see....

Speed Session

My cross-country run to and from work was quite interesting yesterday. The run to work was ok - saw some wildlife (ducks, rabbits, cuckoo and fox) and avoided getting my legs stung to smitherines by wearing long footy socks - nice. However, when I got to the final field it contained a herd of cows; so I thought. As I climbed the gate they all turned and made their move toward me, very quickly. So I hot-footed it over a fence in to the adjoining field only for the herd to gallop toward me, two of the 'cows' actually hurdled the fence - never seen that before, very impressive. At this point I realised the lack of udders and so made lots of noise and waving of arms. The bulls returned to their field but it was as if they knew I had to get back over the fence into the same field to get back on to my route. So I did and they immediately charged resulting in a man versus bull race to the fence. I won, just and much to the amusement of a lady looking out of her bedroom window at the comedy that was unfolding. As I looked around it was as if the bulls were saying 'you won this time matey, see you at 4 o'clock for the return match'.

I circumvented that field on the way home on the advice of an 8 year old girl who saw me venturing back into the field - "don't go in there, they will attack you and they broke somebody's arm last week" - I heeded her advice!

Canix

Well that was interesting. My first man & dog race was on Sunday and we did ok. Our finish time for the 5k was 19:46 and we finished 6th in our class. Quite pleased with the time but was surprised by the level of competition; much stronger than I thought it would be with the winner posting a 16:47 - good with or without dog!

So Rusty seemed to enjoy it. Off like a lunatic at the start but needs to pace himself as he was dragging his weary paws toward the end. We were only overtaken once on the two lap course, it was like being passed by a dog/man express train! We passed quite a few competitors and it was funny to watch the dogs exchange glances on the way past 'ha, faster than you and you're a husky!'

Photo or me & Rusty to the right of the blog.

Here's the details:

Tewkesbury Half Marathon

So last Sunday saw witness to a rather painful and hot experience. The Tewkesbury Half took place in high 70 / low 80 degree temperature that saw me register a much slower than anticipated 1hr31. I was aiming for 1hr25 and was ahead of my goal pace after 3 miles and then it all went horribly wrong. I decided to miss the first water station at 2.5 miles and by mile 5, I had blown up. I completely fell apart and my pace dropped through the floor from around 6.30/mile to 7.00/mile. I struggled on through the next few miles, just looking at my feet and hoping the next water station would appear like an oasis. Miles 5-8 were are real struggle and I almost stopped running altogether as my goal had gone and it felt like I was running backwards. I rallied toward the end with two sub-7.00/miles but it was a painful finish to a hot and tiring race.

Hats of to Laura though who bounced to the finish in 1hr 24, finishing as first lady, first Harrier and 13th overall. Cracking run, amazing performance in such conditions.

Dave staggered over the line in much the same state as I. A race we'd both rather forget as soon as poss!

Good run last night with the Harriers; a 9 mile run offroad including Cleeve Hill and the racecourse. Nice pace, lovely conditions but has left me with very badly bruised toes to complement the blisters from Sunday.

Next stop: Sunday's race with trusty Rusty!

Tewkesbury Half Marathon

This should be the flyover of the route for Sunday.

http://www.sports-log.com/tewkesburyhalf

Racing Ahead

I've now got a few races booked over the next few months, all starting with the Tewkesbury Half Marathon on Sunday 11 May. Following that I have:

18 May - CANIX 5K (this is a 5k race around Cheltenham Racecourse with dogs so Rusty will have his racing paws on and off we go! Should be good for a laugh and if I do poorly, I can blame the dog)

28 June - Cotswold Way Relay
1 July - Forest of Dean Trail 10k
19 Oct - Abingdon Marathon

Surprised myself

All week I had planned a long run for today. However, I woke up today really weary, a bit sore from my XC exertions on Thursday and feeling like a long run, 15 miles or so, was out of the question. A morning in town did nothing to enhance my energy either. So I went out this afternoon thinking I'd just see how it went and see how far I could manage today. Surprisingly, I managed my whole planned route of 15.2 miles although my goal pace of 7.30min/mile wasn't quite achieved. I think the warm and humid conditions dropped my pace a bit down to 7.40 overall although my Garmin suggested in was closer to 7.33 - I always trust my Garmin ;)

Highlights of the run? Not that many actually. Lots of flies around, especially along the country lanes. Lots of traffic on the Winchcombe Road and when I called home to tell Helen I was going for the full distance, she reported that both of the little ones were in scream mode. I'm not sure whether I quickened my pace to get back home so I could help, or slowed a little!

If you look at the MB readout below and select 'laps' you'll see I did some negative splits (running the second half of the distance quicker than the first half). I think the terrain helped with that a little but I did feel pretty good all the way around, until the last mile.

Next stop, Tewkesbury Half Marathon on Sunday 11 May.

Glorious Mud

Using 'mapmyrun.com' I sorted out a new, more entertaining route to and from work. Instead of the normal 6 mile road route, I devised a cross-country variant of about 6.5 miles. So I tested it yesterday morning and ended up very muddy, covered in stings from nettles and totally 8 miles! Some slight 'navigational corrections' were needed due to a lack of footpath where I thought there would be one! Anyway, I corrected that on the way home and indeed, the route was 6.5 miles. The route to work was a bit like running through a wildlife park. I saw deer, ducks, horses, cows, sheep, pheasant, a heron and goats. I also tripped over a rock and dived into a freshly ploughed field. Nice.

Still, it beats the road!