I can still run a marathon

 I've been slowly trying to come back from the ankle injury I picked up at the 10in10, but got totally impatient, and decided I was losing sight of myself as a marathon runner as the furthest I've run in months is 12 miles. So, this weekend, I decided I was going to have a go at a marathon - not at a race, but just go out for the afternoon and see how I got on. I also bought myself a new UltrAspire Revolution vest as a birthday present to myself and needed an opportunity to properly try it out!

 So, I ran up to Stock, a local village about 4 miles away, and then, using a mixture of following the sign posts and the route description I printed off from the Challenge Running website, I followed the St Peter's Way path for my run.

It was beautiful today, but because of the time of year, it was incredibly different to last time I ran this route when I did the St Peter's Way ultra in February - rather than running over empty ploughed fields I was running through fields of corn, and the obvious pathways had become overgrown by grasses which in some places were thigh high and I had to fight my way through!

There's a path through there!

Thigh high!

I was pretty pleased with how I wsa getting on, although when I suddenly realised I must have dropped my route description, was a bit worried! I ended up getting lost quite a few times, but I had a map of the route too, and using that and my mobile GPS to confirm where I actually way, I managed to find my way back to the right path.

I stopped at the half-way point & had some lunch!

I'd been having gels as I was going, but stopped at 14 miles and had a bit of lunch, before heading back, hoping that the return journey would involve fewer "getting lost" detours! 

It turned out the return journey was harder than expected, as although my legs and body felt alright, I just got really tired and found myself walking quite a lot. It was pretty warm out there, and I found myself drinking quite a bit too - I ran out of water so ended up refilling from an outside tap. My ankle started to play up a bit too, from about 20 miles, and it's pretty sore now I'm home so I've been icing, but fingers crossed it'll be ok.

I loved being out there though, despite it being hard work. Just to know that I was actually still able to run that sort of distance was a boost even though I was terribly slow and had to walk so much.  I'm really tired now too - much more than normal, but I suppose it's inevitable that it's going to take me a while to get back to proper marathon fitness. I think this is a pretty good start though.

 
Here are a few other photos from my day out :)

 

See where my socks were.....