3rd November 2024
Reading Time: Two minutes
It’s always the same story – never enough training! Last year I had just returned from the North West Passage and this year I had simply been sailing all summer.
I don’t know why, but going for a run after a long sail simply doesn’t appeal nearly as much as going for a beer. I had managed to squeeze in a couple of “Thames Loops” over Tower Bridge and through the Greenwich tunnel but my times were diabolically slow at around 7.5 minutes per km. Running with the dog doesn’t help but that’s no excuse.
So realistically if I multiplied 21.1 kilometers x 7 minutes, that should give me my best possible time of 1 hour 27 minutes.
So I was pretty pleased to stagger over the line in 2 hours 23 minutes. What I found a bit depressing was that the fastest MV60 was 1 hour 37 minutes, MV70 was 1 hour 46 minutes and MV80 was 1 hour 58 minutes!
Those were the oldies times, the younger athletes were getting around in 1 hour 11 minutes, over twice my speed! Mind you, running conditions were excellent and those times were course records.
Oh well, for me it was just for fun, I’ve given up with PB’s. We met up with Liam, Alex and Kerry before celebrating with our traditional Sunday lunch with my sister.
We will be back!
Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who make the race such a success.
Well, I say I will be back. There is a cut off time of 3 hours so if I carry on getting slower at the same pace it will be in 2035 when they will ban me!
On the Sunday after the Marlow Half Marathon I decided to try the One Tree Hill Challenge. It was devised by Paul from Military Outdoor Fitness as a Remembrance Day Challenge. It involves running up One Tree Hill in Greenwich Park and doing 10 dips and 10 press ups at the top then repeating it 11 times with 11 dips and press ups on the last climb.
The challenge is to finish in under 50 minutes. Mark and I sneaked in just in time. Val and Ursula smashed it and even added a few more climbs to boot!
Now I need a rest!
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