Saturday 19 December – Day 9/12; 75/89 miles completed (10.1 today)
I was again dressed as an elf (but without Santa’s hat; at 11 degrees it was far too warm for furry polyester headwear) as I stepped out of the door into the dark of pre-dawn. I’d told Mick what route I was taking (around the local streets until it started getting light, then along the canal), then I did something completely different, making my route up as I went along. On the plus side, far more people got to smile at my ridiculous outfit on the route I took.
A grumbling tendon in my foot had me unsure how far I was going to run, but I’d given Mick the bracket of between 5 and 13 miles. Five would have been less than ideal, putting me behind, rather than ahead of myself. The final result of 10 miles was good enough, and didn’t seem to aggravate the foot too much.
Obligatory selfie
A bit waterlogged in places around the ponds
High water in the ponds too (not quite daylight yet)
Sunday 20 December – Day 10/12; 88.2/89 miles completed (13.2 today)
By yesterday afternoon my mildly grumbling foot felt absolutely fine and it seemed like an excellent and entirely sensible* idea to follow yesterday’s 10-miler with a half-marathon today. The obvious place to do this was back on the Tissington Trail, which has the benefits of requiring absolutely no route choices or navigation and involving no road crossings or traffic.
So, once again it was a 6am alarm and before 7 we were driving northwards. Light was only just seeping into the day as we set out onto the trail, with Mick joining me for the first couple of miles.
It was a surprise to then see him running towards me a few miles later; having finished his run he’d stopped in a layby on his way down to Ashbourne and thought he would intercept me to see if there was anything I needed. There wasn’t, so he peeled off to meet me again at the end of the trail.
In between his leaving me the first time and that unexpected encounter, just 3.5km into my intended 21.1+, my mind had revolted, trying hard to convince me that I couldn’t possibly run this distance today. I had to give myself a bit of a mental slap and focus on the end rather than the getting there … then the trail, which had been running along an exposed embankment direct into the wind, went into a sheltered cutting and suddenly everything seemed so much more achievable. Alas, I didn’t stay sheltered for long and the biting headwind had me wearing my jacket and gloves for the duration, but at least my mind ceased its revolt.
Given that I didn’t have to worry about the state of my legs tomorrow, I allowed my pace to pick up as I went along and whilst 2:06 is a way behind my half-marathon PB, given what I’ve been doing lately, I was rather chuffed at achieving that time today.
So, with 48 hours left before the end of this Virtual Ultra, I have just three-quarters
of a mile remaining to run, which sounds eminently achievable to me. Who'd have thought, two weeks ago, that I could as good as get this done with two days to spare? Certainly not me!
Not quite daylight when I took this snap but look: clear views! This is the third time I’ve run down the Tissington Trail, and the first time I’ve had good weather (I’ve also run up it a couple of times but have no recollection of the weather conditions on those occasions)
I even caught a few rays of sunshine!
(*Okay, so maybe I could see a few flaws and risk factors in suddenly throwing in this mileage when I’ve already been stressing my body with abnormal training loads for a week and a half, but I didn’t let it put me off.)
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