Category: Running

For posts about running

The Accidental 10k

About a month ago, while I was on holiday in Brittany, I decided to go for a run. It was a Sunday morning and it had been raining overnight and for much of the morning but the rain was clearing and the weather fast improving. I hadn’t been for a run for a couple of weeks but I thought I wouldn’t have any trouble doing a gentle 3 miles or so, following the route of a cycle ride that was provided by the holiday park that we were staying at. You can see from my ‘Run O’Hare Run’ page that I’m not a great runner but have been trying to get into running since May and although I had previously had a fairly poor record of getting out there 3 miles was easily a comfortable distance.

Anyway, I left the rest of the family with the words that I would see them in about 30 minutes which was plenty enough time for 3 miles and off I went. Well, it was a good run but it went on and on. I didnt have a watch but it felt a long time as I went along and when I got to about half way I was feeling pretty whacked. Further and further I went, now on the homeward part with my legs starting to feel significantly sore. It was tough. Eventually, I got back to the park only to find my wife leaving with car keys in hand on the way to try to find me. I hadn’t been 30 minutes but more than double that time and everyone was starting to get worried. I just couldn’t understand it. How could I go from being able to confortably run 3 miles in about 30 minutes to taking twice that time and feeling totally knackered at the end. Okay, it was a bit hotter than at home and the route had some quite decent climbs in it, but 60+ minutes? That was cruel.

A couple of days later I decided to cycle the same route with the gps on my phone switched on the track how far I had been. I got to about halfway round and the distance was reading 2.9 miles… I got to the end and it was reading 6.3 miles… I had run 10km… I have always wanted to run a 10k route but never worked myself up to this distance and now it turned out I had – an accidental 10k. My first ever. So, that’s the way to do it – complete your ambitions by accident – it’s much easier that way. And here. for the record, is my route:

Now then, how about a half marathon?

Run O’Hare Run returns

I’m having (another) big push to run more (regularly and further). The hope is to run roughly every other day and to try to get up to the point where I can easily complete 5 miles. For someone who always hated running this is a big deal, but I am interested with the idea that some people come to running later in life and then suddenly discover that they can run and run and run and I wonder whether that could be me or whether I will always find running difficult and a bit of a chore. It also seems to me that if you don’t deliberately set out to become more than “everyday fit” you inevitably end up less than “everyday fit”. At the moment I run 3 miles reasonably comfortably (although I went beyond this today) but it is worth noting that I have also been walking ~2 miles to and from work each day since the middle of September (so ~4 miles per working day in total) which has certainly done me a lot of good.

Anyway, to help with all of this I have reinstated my “Run O’Hare Run” page which can be viewed via the link over to the right.