Wow, I think I really can do this running thing!

After yesterday's Parkrun I was worried that today's run might be a bit of an anticlimax. Husbando keeps telling me not to run the day before my long run, but there are only so many days in the week, and I don't have time for along run on many of them. After a cup of tea and a crunchy maple syrup granola bar in bed, I did some laundry and got ready for a run.

It had rained overnight, but was sunny when I set out, and windy. Very windy. At one point I came around the corner, out of the shelter of a hedge and was hit by a gust that almost knocked me sideways! I set off to run the Alton 10 route, I knew that starting from my house I would need to add on a few miles if I wanted to finish back at my house without running on into town. So, when I got to Bentley I ran up Station Road and back again. The run was harder without other people to pace myself against, but I reached the 10k point in just under 53 minutes. I hope I can pull something out of the bag for my next 10k race - I'd like to get a new PB. I saw no other runners at all today, but swarms of cyclists. Cycling looks very appealing when you are slogging up hill and the cyclists are freewheeling in the opposite direction! The hills have their benefits, the views from the top are breathtaking, I truly believe that I live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. And, while running down hill hurts my knees and hips, it does allow me to take a bit of a breather.

My detour up Station Road and back again was not going to be enough to ensure I was running for 1hr 45 mins, so when I got back to the start I decided to just carry on! I added a loop that takes in Alton Station and the industrial estate (not terribly pretty!) I felt good and knew that I was averaging sub 9 mins/mile, which isn't bad for what was supposed to be a 'long, slow, distance' run! When I first started running (or rather after a couple of months) this loop of the station and industrial estate constituted my 'long' run, and probably took me the best part of 40 minutes!

I stopped running at the end of my road, having run 12.5 miles in 1hr 50mins and feeling very chuffed with myself! I have to say that I have no idea how people manage to take walking breaks in races - I don't think I could have started running again at that point for all the tea in China! But then again I had just sprinted the last 200m. Someone was asking how hilly the Alton 10 race is - so I've included the elevation profile from today's run as the first 10 miles are pretty much the same.