Anna is “officially tapering” which is very different from the normal routine as we can see…
On Sunday morning, they bussed us up from the henge to Avebury (which has its own, less well known stone circle), for the start of the Neolithic Marathon (also known as the Sarsen Trail). I’ve done this one 3 times before, so knew what to expect. It was muddier than previous sunnier years, but still had the expected strong winds – fortunately this time they remained predominantly tail winds with some cross winds. There are several hills of varying steepness on this beautiful trail course across the Salisbury plains. As I’m officially tapering for the 10in10, I aimed to take about 4:30 to 5 hours, so that my legs wouldn’t get tired and they’d recover quickly. My plan was to jog gently, then walk lots of the uphills, making it a pleasant day out. I stuck to my regime successfully, though finished a bit quicker than anticipated in 4:13. I guess that’s a good sign that my legs are over the exertion of Brighton a fortnight ago and happy to run an ‘easy’ sub-4:15.
On Sunday morning, they bussed us up from the henge to Avebury (which has its own, less well known stone circle), for the start of the Neolithic Marathon (also known as the Sarsen Trail). I’ve done this one 3 times before, so knew what to expect. It was muddier than previous sunnier years, but still had the expected strong winds – fortunately this time they remained predominantly tail winds with some cross winds. There are several hills of varying steepness on this beautiful trail course across the Salisbury plains. As I’m officially tapering for the 10in10, I aimed to take about 4:30 to 5 hours, so that my legs wouldn’t get tired and they’d recover quickly. My plan was to jog gently, then walk lots of the uphills, making it a pleasant day out. I stuck to my regime successfully, though finished a bit quicker than anticipated in 4:13. I guess that’s a good sign that my legs are over the exertion of Brighton a fortnight ago and happy to run an ‘easy’ sub-4:15.
At the run I met loads of folk I knew, including several I hadn’t seen for ages so it was good to catch up. I was also approached by 6 different people I didn’t know, who’d recognised me from being in this month’s Runner’s World magazine. It was almost like being famous. Fame is not something I’d enjoy though – I’ve had to put myself about a bit in the media to try to increase my fundraising, but I’ll be very happy to return to complete anonymity soon.
(Apart from being recognized by all the people you’ve raced with! – Ed)
