Finding My Inner Runner

The accepted distance, by road, from John O' Groats to Lands End is 874 miles (1,407km). The straight line distance between the two is actually a 'mere'  603 miles but, since quite a lot of this route is through the Irish sea, which is not exactly conducive to running (and I'm a famously poor swimmer), I decided to stick with the road network for my virtual mission. If you take Monday 11 th March 2019 (when I commenced my Couch to 5k journey) as being the date I set out on my end-to-end odyssey, today I completed the final 10 miles that saw me traverse the full length of the British mainland from one end to the other. Given the current lockdown restrictions in Scotland meaning I'm supposed to stay within 5km of my home, it's probably just as well that this has been a virtual challenge or I'd probably be in all sorts of trouble (although I could try and claim I was testing my new (at the start) running shoes to see if they fitted me properly as my just...

That pretty much sums up today's run. The distance, 5k, was OK. The time, 32:15 was nothing special but by no means poor based on my usual pace. I certainly want trying for any form of PB either on terms of distance or time, but I still felt somewhat deflated after it. If it had been my plan simply to run 5k, I'm pretty sure I'd have been happy with it; box ticked, achievement unlocked, job done. The trouble was that, while I had no specific distance in mind, I had set out expecting, no, intending to run further but by the time I got to 5k, my enthusiasm had evaporated and I plodded wearily home as my 5 minute cool down. As I said, not a bad run by any standards, and one that I'd normally be happy enough with but today has just felt a bit flat; which, given that one of the reasons I run is for the lift it gives me, makes this one all the more disappointing. Ah well, I'm sure normal service will resume soon.

As I mentioned in my last post , my plan for this evening was to take my new shoes out for their maiden run. By some strange coincidence, today also happens to be Global Running Day. To mark this occasion, I decided to run the same route that I did for last year's event . The result was that this year I ran it a whole 7 minutes faster than last year. My time of 27:22 was a new 5k PB and was 37 seconds faster than my previous best, set at the end of March. How much of that improvement is down to the shoes, and how much is down to having had a break from running since I completed my #MilesForMind  challenge on Friday is a matter of conjecture, although they did feel decidedly springier than the pair they replaced have felt in quite a while. Anyway, it does seem like an auspicious start and hopefully it won't be the last PB I set in them.

After a little over 8 months and a little under 740 km, it is time for me, sadly, to send my trusty old Brooks Ghosts off to the great retirement home for running shoes in the sky... Fair thee well, faithful companions, your watch is ended... Tonight, in recognition of it being Global Running Day, it is time to take their successors out for their maiden lollop. It's fair to say they have a tough act to follow... The Ghosts are dead! Long live the Ghosts!