Sunday run: Hey hey, 1k!

I just finished a 15.195km running that lasted about 1hh:28mm:56.0ss !

I got into running about eight years ago when I decided I was getting a bit flabby in my mid-40s. I had never been particularly sporty. I did not do much sport at school. I did play Ultimate and do some judo at university, but was not much good at either. I also had some periods when I used gyms at places I worked. I am lucky that I do not seem to put on a lot of weight, but I got to a point where I decided I needed to do something to stay healthy and running was convenient. You have to drive to a gym from where we live, but there are lots of tracks that are ideal for running.

I started off by running around the block. That was hard enough then and it took me a while to recover. Over the years I have extended my distances and gotten faster. I do not do a lot of organised events, but I have done the local 10k four times and the half marathon twice. I started going to parkrun when one started nearby, but barely seem to manage once a month. I would like to improve on that next year and get my time down a bit. I came very close to 25 minutes recently, which is a distinct improvement on my early times.

I had some thought that I could try for 1000km this year, but was not really keeping track of my progress on that. I just got out two or three times each week for my regular runs. As we got close to the end of the year it was looking possible. Today I pushed through that milestone with a fairly long run. I am sure plenty of people do several times this distance, but we each do what we can.

I have gotten into a habit of lying in over Christmas, so it was not an early start. The weather was looking reasonable and I decided to risk just t-shirt and shorts. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, but was going to see how it went. I was not totally sure how far I needed to go to hit my target. After running up to and around Fairfield I felt up to extending the run and struck out towards the parkrun location. That track is always a bit muddy, but it does seem to be drying out a little. There were a few less puddles on the Greenway. I went on to Norton and followed the road for a bit before getting back on the Greenway. I was feeling pretty good, but did not push too hard on the pace. I came back through Stotfold to Arlesey with a couple of little diversions to stretch it out a bit.

My podcast listening was Late Night Linux, Sodajerker (with Beck) and Chasing Tone. No special wildlife to report. There were a few runners out. I wonder if we will see more in the new year, but it is not the best time to start. I will try to keep going through the colder and wetter months. I have no idea if we will get snow this winter. So far it has been mostly too warm.

I may still fit in another run this year. I would like to up the distance again next year, but we shall see how it goes. I hope the other runners of Steem achieved their goals this year and wish them all the best for 2020.

Run free!

The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.

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