I’m going to just pick up my running story from my last post, after the Liverpool Half Marathon when I entered the Guernsey Milk Run half for what would be my second attempt it. As I’d felt reasonably strong before Liverpool, I felt like I’d just go through a taper training phase again and see how that left me.
My first long run saw me take in Dinton Pastures parkrun which was good fun.
Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/dpGgdP2l0X
Interval sessions, tempo runs, even a hill session all went pretty well and whilst I can’t say I was confident as I still had the odd leg niggle, I felt positive for Guernsey.
I did one of my occasional long runs along the Kennet from Theale back to Reading and enjoyed that loads.
I had a fairly relaxed couple of days in the build up to Guernsey so I felt prepared. My runs had gone well and while I can’t imagine ever going into a half marathon thinking that I’ll break 2 hours, it felt like it was within reach at least.
We spent a night in Guernsey and enjoyed ourselves with a really relaxed day and evening. We’ll aim to head back soon without a race around it. The morning went to plan. My routine was good, and the taxi was a little late but got me around the start nice and early.
I enjoy the start of this race because of the novelty having a donkey at the start, and a blow up milk bottle.
As you do.
The start was the highlight of the first 21km of this race. Something went in my calf within the first 500m and essentially that was that. I nearly fell over on the spot, but got going again, then around the 1 mile mark I started walking and considered very seriously whether pulling out was the right thing to do.
I don’t give up that easily but I thought if this wasn’t going be a great race then what was the point. But ultimately I decided to go on, while taking it easy. One of my slower half marathons ever is still one more half marathon.
One more challenge met eye-to-eye.
One more challenge faced down and beaten.
It wasn’t fun but I did no harm. It didn’t feel like it in the aftermath of the run because I could barely walk from Costa across the road to the pub when it opened at 12. Managed it though.
But within three or four days I was able to run again and quite honestly it was at that stage when the disappointment really kicked in. At least, my body could have had the decency of being properly injured, but I can’t really be unhappy in the end.
At the end of the day, I finished with a time of 2:25:53. I finished a half marathon distance for the 22nd time. I was proud of sticking it out whilst being careful enough to not cause any lasting damage. I got a medal.
I’ve enjoyed getting back to running again. A good variety of tempo and interval runs. I also enjoyed a return to parkrun last Saturday and then my first 5k out with the Sweatshop Running Community last Tuesday.
We’re now planning another event for next month but there’s a lot of training to do for that. Looking forward to it really.
Dave's Running Plans 