Misplaced............

At this time, 7 weeks from today I will have finished the marathon (hopefully) and will be sitting quietly somewhere enjoying a celebratory beer!

Which will be nice.

Today though - long run day.

Due to my crusty lungs I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out today. Yesterday was a 'rest' day - although I was subjected to a full day of wedding focused shopping in Leeds with my sister, mum & the other 2 of my sister's bridesmaids - so it wasn't really all that restful :) I felt pretty ropey all day though - at one point I felt a bit seasick - dizzy and queasy, and my lungs were a bit sore, which wasn't great.

Anyway, I woke up this morning and was 'testing' my lungs by taking massive breaths and see if they hurt at all. All it did was make me feel a bit light headed, and I decided that I was just being a bit soft, and that at least I should go out and do something of a run - with the plan that I could head home early, or stop after one lap if I wasn't feeling up to doing the full distance.

Today's planned distance was 18 miles. I had planned a lap of 10 miles and a lap of 8 miles - taking in mostly country roads - a couple of which I had never been down before - and avoiding the main highways for fear of being mown down by seaside bound tourists.

So - I set off just before 10am (a little later than planned) and everything was good. I had a bottle of water and a couple of gels with me - I had left a bottle with energy drink at my Mum's to collect at the end of my first lap.

It was a bit cold, but not too bad, and it wasn't raining (so much for the grim north eh?).

I was going too fast - and kept slowing myself down, but I felt alright. I was enjoying the quiet and the countryside, I was finding my way with no trouble - even on the roads I hadn't been on before (no map) - and then........... I came out somewhere I wasn't expecting, infact, I was about 3 miles away from where I had been expecting to be!

Whilst not strictly 'lost' I was definately 'misplaced'!!

So, what to do? After running up and down this road a couple of times to check out my options (should I go back, should I carry on....), it seemed pretty clear that all I could do was plough on - which I did. Unfortunately my foot pod (the part of my running gadget that tells me how far I have been and how fast I am going) chose that precise moment to run out of battery - 15km into my run! Great. Also, my new alternative route meant running up an excessively large hill, and then for about a mile along the main road - right in the face of all those seaside bound Wessies I had been trying to avoid! Also great.

Still, I didn't die - and I did get back on track, and back to the house, but my first lap ended at about 14 miles! Still, on the upside that meant that I only had another 4 to go, on the downside, I didn't know where to run to do that distance - so I just headed back out the same way I had in the morning, and hoped that by cutting it short at a certain point it would work out alright.

It did work out OK - although I ended up running down another main road, and then a bit of offroad alongside the Driffield canal which brought me out at Riverhead (in the picture on a slightly sunnier day!).

Overall I did somewhere between 19 & 20 miles (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=747803) - which was a bit further than I intended - but I felt pretty good, I was actually faster (I think) than I had been at the race last weekend, and I did it!

Also, I missed the rain by approximately 3 minutes. How brilliant (and unlikely) is that?