Choosing to postpone yesterdays long run to today turned out to be an excellent decision, 21 miles along the River Severn following the 'Severn Way' was simply beautiful! beautiful & muddy!. I planned the route to include crossing over the 1 mile river Severn suspension bridge to neighbouring Wales, back across again and then continuing north along the public bridal way to Oldbury on Severn. Saturday brought the first big storm of the autumn/winter with heavy rain and winds gusting to 75mph, not ideal conditions for a 20+ mile and i really wanted to include the crossing over the River Severn, which wouldn't have been possible in those winds. Sunday was perfect though, sunny to start with, the wind behind my back and a really varied interesting terrain which changed constantly, keeping me focused on each step forward. The mud was thick and deep in parts which made keeping a planned 9min/mile pace difficult, plus i had to navigate a little too and contend with fences and sty's along the bridal way, but thanks to the detailed maps South Gloucester provide on their website; and a kind old fella who showed me the way to the Severn Bridge pedestrian crossing, I was able to plan the Severn Way route quite easily and didn't make a mistake. My first coastal series marathon of the winter/spring season is coming up on December 5th, and this was an important training run to do my best to simulate conditions and see how I'm able to translate my road running experience. I ran a little long and finished 20.97m in 3:03:13 for a 8:44min/mile pace which was tough towards the end including a 400ft assent, a headwind and a boggy field I'm pretty happy with that result, its a massive confidence boost before the race, which I've said before is key to success, maintaining confidence is everything. My wife and parents were kind enough to endure the windy weather and met me at several points along todays route, having that support and seeing my wifes pride especially means the world to me, she's been there for me in every major race so far, and on the long runs its the thought of her patiently waiting which drives me to keep putting one foot in front of the other. [20.97m - 03:03:13 - 08:44/m]
[Severn Beach, the river & the Bridge, mile 3]
[Severn Bridge, miles 5-8]
[Severn Way, Oldbury in the distance, mile 10 & 17]
[The Severn Way; muddy from heavy rains the day before]
No comments:
Post a Comment