First 10 mile run!

I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself today. It all started yesterday when I picked up some new trainers. My old pair were really starting to look rather worn. I knew I was safely over the 400 mile point when it’s generally recommended to get new trainers, but holidays and general busy-ness just meant I couldn’t get myself out to sweatshop. But go I did, and I have a new pair of trainers. Marvellous they felt too that I couldn’t resist going for a short run yesterday.

This morning however I wanted to go a bit further as the half marathon approaches. I’ve been building up the distance for a while now, so was feeling good enough to see about going for a couple of kilometres more than I’d previously managed. I’d investigated a couple of route possibilities yesterday, but in the end opted to join a couple of long routes together that I’d previously run, and managed to run 16.1km (10.01miles) in 1:32:21. Funnily enough I hadn’t aimed to break the 10m distance at all – I’d been aiming for 15km, and felt good enough to do a little bit more.

By the magic of some new behind-the-scenes google link technology I’m hoping you’ll see the route of my run, in all it’s glory, below. If not, and you’re curious, you can click here for a new window:


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The start is a bit further down from our house: My Garmin is taking it’s precious time to find the satellites in the morning. But the first section of the route follows our road down to the Maxwell park, which I loop, then follow one of the nice long roads along the side of the railway. It’s then a cut across Pollokshields road and around Queens Park. I stuck to the outside as the hill on the southern tip is a bit easier outside of the park. The 4km mark is pretty much the highest point in the park.

I then headed over to Nithsdale road, which I recently ‘discovered’ as a great way of linking Maxwell Park to Bellahouston park. It’s long and straight, and there are only a couple of pedestrian crossings along the way. Into Bellahouston park for a small loop. I had been tempted to go all the way around, but by this point was thinking I’d be better making decisions like that after I’d reached Pollok Park and all it’s route options, just incase I started feeling it was getting a bit tough. At the exit of Bellahouston park I’m safely at 10km.

So in to Pollok park, and around what I call the ‘outer loop’ – Past Pollok House and the river, past the Cricket club, then doubling back down towards Pollok House. If I’d been feeling the strain a bit, I could have cut things a bit shorter and headed back home past the Burrell collection, but I was feeling good and the weather was super, so I carried on through the tree-lined paths. Only difficult bit was around the 14.5km mark, where the road gets rather steep. Normally I run down this path, and it was hard work going up the path at the end of such a long run. But managed it ok, to bring my run to an end at just over 16km, with another 5-10 minutes of cooling down, followed by plenty of stretching. So a bit tired and a little sore. With the rain, my tops got rather wet. Suffice to say I’m sore in unusual places!

All in all, I’m feeling *very* positive about my efforts. It’s a great distance to have under my belt, and I felt extremely good about myself all the way around, managing an average pace of 9:19/mile (5:47/km) was better than I’d expected too. fetch translates the run into a half-marathon time of 2:04:06. So with a few more miles to add to that distance, I’m feeling very confident about my half marathon estimations.

On the half-marathon front I’ve scarily already raised well over my target of £500! Not sure if I’m going to revise the target higher, or leave it as it is and see where it gets to (details are here, and in the right hand sidebar if you would like to sponsor me!). But it’s smashing stuff, and the notes and comments received from everybody have no doubt at all been, and will continue to be, a massive help in keeping me going in my training!

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