The long and tiring road - Kilomathon England 26K

5K run on Friday night with Brownie round Leamington shows me that the hamstring still wasn't quite right yet. I used a heat pad and two or three glasses of Borolo for the whole night after the run to try and help it recover.

I think after the run that we definately need to see Brownie out training more to try to get him up to full match fitness.The goal being a group run later in the year with Stu,Chico and Dougie.

The big day arrives. Stu and I manage to swerve the dangers of too many beers at Brownies and keep our consumption during the Scotland-England match down to 4 pint's and a gallon of Soda and lime each. Pasta bake from Jacqui then bed at 10:30pm on Saturday night for an ungodly rise at 5:30am to get to Nottingham from Leamington Spa.

5:30am Falling out of bed to the beeping alarms the thoughts were not positive...What was I thinking about coming all this way to get up in the middle of the night to torture myself on a 26K run....too late now.

We got there without incident in about 50 minutes thanks to Stu's GPS and managed a few snacks in the car on the way.

Start took ages and we were standing about freezing for not a lot short of and hour and a half. The wind was brisk and the temp was about 4 Degrees C. Occasional glimpses of sun warmed the weary runners.

Off at 9am. About 5500 runners and all pretty orderly for the first 5K which dropped off in 25 mins exactly. At 8K I could feel my hamstring a bit and a muscle pain from a thigh cramp I'd had during the night on Friday. At 10K I was feeling OK and time was 53 mins. Wind now right into my face as we headed from Nottingham out to Derby. Directly into the wind for about 9K, and it was bloody freezing. I ran with a long sleeve compression top, short sleeved running top and a running rain jacket. I had my leggings on under my shorts and my hat on. Still pretty cold.

Stu pulled away after about 10K and was in my sights till about 14K. I was in the same group for a lot of the race. As we started quite near the front I saw only a small handful of people falling back but was overhauled by what felt like was the whole of Nottingham.

Plenty of support from the locals and I needed all the encouragement I could get. At half marathon distance I was 1:53 so hardly blistering pace but not actually that bad for first run of the season. That 21K distance actually felt quite short and stopping then would have been very agreeable and I'd have felt good. Still 13 minutes slower than my previous personal best for the half marathon distance.

The additional 5K to 26K doesn't sound like much but I found it very hard going and my legs and feet were pretty sore for the rest of the run. At 23K I got the run in boost and knew then I'd be OK but had to keep my mind off the pain. I had to shorten my stride length a bit as my hamstring was sore on longer strides but I finished in a cold and painful 2:26. About 16 mins slower than I estimated when I signed up after Glasgow marathon last year.

However with just 3-4 weeks of real training its a pretty good result. Stu came in with a very nice 2:13 time and is showing that clearly his legs are as young as his boyish coupon.

A good distance and a great weekend, however I'm as proud of avoiding a big session during the Rugby game as I am at finishing...both were very difficult.

Chapeau to Family Brown for the usual tip top hospitality. Next time I'm over I'll not be running, unless its to the bar and back.