And we're off!



Brighton Half Marathon - here we come!

Having enjoyed holidays in the North of Scotland in both glorious and somewhat less than glorious weather, we have a saying in our house when the weather's a bit rubbish and we don't really want to go out which goes along the lines of "If we were in Balnakeil we'd be on the beach..."

I was reminded of this this morning, not because of the weather, but because I didn't want to run, I hadn't slept well and it was me who was feeling a bit rubbish and I found myself saying (albeit to myself) "If this was a Saturday I'd be at parkrun..."

So I donned my trainers and set out for the first three miles of our two hundred and twelve mile training plan, which should see us up to half marathon distance by Christmas - I don't know what panic's me more the running or the fact that it's around twelve weeks till Christmas!

It wasn't the most spectacular of runs, but I did it and I'm glad I went early and got it over with rather than spend the day making excuses over why I shouldn't go.  Disappointingly my Garmin died just as I set off and I'm somewhat gutted that I won't have a record of the whole two hundred and twelve miles, but not so much so that I want to do a second 'first' run! It does however, also mean that I have no idea of my pace but I know it was faster than the recommended twelve minutes per mile on our tortoise training plan! Halfmarathongirl is struggling to run this slowly too, so we have reached the conclusion that we'll just run at a comfortable pace for now, there's plenty of time for us to get slower as the distance increases!

Finally we're on our way! It feels like it has been a long time coming and I just hope that the training that I've put in to date will help my knees and ankles stand up to the increases in distance that are heading our way.  Although that said it's five weeks until we run eight miles, so perhaps I'll be ready by then, especially as if I do my exercises twice a day on days that I don't run that's two thousand four hundred squats away!

M - 588
HM - 145
Glasgow  - 5
Distance covered 3.1 miles
Total Distance covered  257.5 miles