Monday 15 February 2010

Iccle Ultra in the Capital

The first ever London Ultra - only a baby one of 50K, but a surprisingly pleasant route around part of the Capital Ring. This path took us from Streatham Common, through the streets, along the river, through parks, by the canal, over a couple of hills to the finish close to Wembley Stadium.We had maps, but they didn't quite link up, so we mainly relied on looking out for the signs, some of which were very clear, where others were just small symbols on marker posts. Managed to not get lost though. I ran with Heather and we were both feeling a bit knackered so took it at a sedate pace, finishing in 5:42. We met plenty of familiar faces and some new ones, including Jim Meta who'll be joining us for the 10 in 10. A pleasant way to spend the Saturday to kick start the half term holidays. No more marathons till the end of the month now. That feels very odd. But there's plenty lined up to keep me occupied throughout March and April, so a bit of a rest now might be a good thing.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Thames Trot #2

Yesterday I did the Thames Trot (50 mile ultra) for the second time. I was a few minutes slower than last year - despite not having a snow and ice covered course this time - but I put that down to still being a bit tired from winning my 90 mile race a fortnight ago (I still like the way that sounds!).
It was an overcast day, with perfect running temperature. The Thames Path (which is actually just fields a lot of the time: "path" gives the wrong impression entirely) was exceedingly muddy in places, making it tough going. As I wasn't aiming for a time, but just hoping to enjoy a nice day out in the countryside, I took it very steady and walked a fair bit of the second half (I maintained a good 25/5, run/walk regime for the first 5 hours, before my legs started reminding me that they'd really have preferred a little more recovery time after the ultrarace 90, thank you very much).

The organisers are great, very friendly and supportive and had even taken on board my previous comments about race T shirts (I said a proper wicky one, ideally in black would be great). I can honestly day it's the best race T shirt I've had, as modeled by Tommy:
A top day and all good training for the ten in ten - www.justgiving.com/annafinn10in10