1 Do it off road in daylight
2 Do it somewhere you’ve NEVER been before!
3 Take your time and enjoy it
4 Stop and take photos of red kites
5 Eat your fave snacks along the way
This Sunday I had my final super-long run on my Rory Coleman training plan for The Coastal Challenge 6 marathons in 6 days that I’m doing in Costa Rica in less than 2 weeks! Very excited/scared now, started packing this weekend, will share that in another blog post…(Taking LOADS of delicious Honey Stinger gels, waffles, and protein and energy bars!)
I wanted to make it special, away from my usual local 10 mile laps round endless muddy fields, but I didn’t want to waste 4 hours in a car getting to and from the Norfolk Coast or Peak District. So I got the map out to explore more of the Jurassic Way National Trail around the Fineshade/Wakely Wood area about 20mins from where I live.
The beautiful weather definitely helped, it was still bloomin’ muddy, but I discovered a really excitingly hilly, grassy, stunning part of Northamptonshire/Rutland that I wish I’d found sooner. I would have done all my 20 milers out this way!
I put no pressure on myself, I just wanted to enjoy my final 20 miler and relish being outside on such a delicious day, which was just as well as I had to stop a fair few times to check the map and I were agreeing with each other. I took food to make it all the more agreeable. And my iPod in case the bird song ran out.
The absolute highlight was discovering a great big hill (on an East Midlands scale!) where at the top about 5-6 red kites were circling about. This was especially brilliant as sadly a family member who recently passed away had said this was his favourite flying thing, so I took a moment to photograph them in his memory and think about what a good taste in birds he had!
Don’t get me wrong, there were tough times – mainly I think because I kept having to stop and squint at my tiny map, must remember to print a more zoomed in version next time, oh yes, and because I was hung over! Whoops, don’t tell Rory, I may have had 5 beers and a helluva lot of chocolate on Sat eve as we had friends round and I lost all self control…
Sort of making up for it though, this new planned route actually turned out to be 23 miles, so that was a bit extra burned. Rory won’t be happy at me for not sticking to the plan, but thankfully I felt strong and ready to run on even then. Today I feel like I could definitely run again. I also feel like I could eat a horse and the rider too, but more on my target weight later. I was 57.5kg on Sat morning, a kg heavier now, and I’ve vowed I’m not getting on that plane until I weigh 57kg, so back to the veg pots it is…
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