Training starts early

I hadn't been able to start my training on the day I received my form, and today I was due to play Ultimate Frisbee (that's another blog altogether). In fact this week wasn't looking too promising with me giving blood on Wednesday and playing Frisbee on Thursday too.

Someone up there must have decided I could do with an early start on my Marathon road, because, for the first time for a couple of years the weekly game of Frisbee at work was cancelled. I took the opportunity to go for a run. Well to be honest Hazel damn near forced me out the door.

So at 6pm, kitted up in my running leggings and top (which I'd serendipitously bought for Ultimate a week before) I headed out the door. I'd decided for this first post-acceptance outing that I'd opt for my Oakwood run, an undulating route that takes me around half an hour to complete. I planned out a possible extension if I felt particularly good.

My recent acceptance must have been sending extra serotonin round my body, because in spite of feeling a little tired at the beginning, I started to get into it. With Good Charlotte still blaring into my ears I reched Oakwood with a shade over 15 minutes gone. I took a split second decision and decided to continue my run out to Cockfosters. My backup route involved circling back round a country lane that would probably have made my run close to 10k.

So there I am, jogging happily(ish!) along when I spot my side road. Without lights. Or pavement. Now I'm not a nervous person, but the idea of running down a country lane at night without a pavement didn't seem to be a good idea. Caught unawares, I decided to continue running along the road I was already on, out towards the M25. In the distance I could see the lights of the motorway and thought "What the hell - it would be pretty cool to have run all the way to the M25". A few seconds later I passed a sign saying that I'd just entered Hetfordshire - cross county running...

I reached the motorway with around 45 minutes gone and suddenly thought about what Hazel would think - I'd told her I might take longer than half an hour, but she couldn't possibly think I'd be away that long. I felt pretty guilty, but that thought was quickly cut off when I realised that I needed the loo. And I'm not talking a quick stop at the side of the road for a pee.

I took the same route back without too much trouble, and arrived home with the clock reading 1 hour 27 minutes - my longest ever run.

Later in the evening I looked up the length of the run on a Google Map mashup called gmap-pedometer. Basically it allows you to plot out a route on a Google Map and calculate the distance you've run. It turned out I'd run almost exactly 17km. Wow - that's almost a half marathon on my first outing.

So aside from being quite stiff, I'm a pretty happy bunny and feeling much more confident with the whole Marathon thing. Can't wait for the next run!