12 Miles...almost there!

  Today was long run Sunday again and boy was it a long one today.  Finally made it to the big 12 miler which must mean it's only two weeks today until the big day!  It has taken 10 weeks of training to get here so far and I have to say it feels rather good.  I think it was back in May that I ran a whole mile without stopping for the first time, so to be running 12 only four months later feels like quite an achievement.  

I do ache though, but it's only my left groin that feels a bit stiff so far, not sure if I will be saying the same in the morning when I expect my entire body will be crying out in pain!

This week was not quite as hard as I expected, though I did miss out one training run but managed two nice early morning 3.5 mile runs in the dark! The days are starting to get shorter again so i'm out well before sunrise now.  I really need to invest in a headlight to see where I am going.  I do stick to routes that are well lit but I cant expect the council to keep all the street lights going can I?! Other than that, the reality of winter training is starting to become apparent, I know this is nothing compared to what I will have to cope with but come mid-December I will be starting my full marathon training which will undoubtedly be cold, damp and devilishly un-motivating but it has to be done if I ever hope to survive 26.2 miles!

While I was recovering from this morning's training I managed to catch some of the Great North Run.  It was amazing to see the speeds that the elite women runners were achieving - speeds I could only dream of, they could do the course twice and have half hour rest before i'd waddle over the finish line!! What is really inspiring is to see all those people running for different reasons and, for once, having a good idea of all the training they have gone through to get there.  There's gonna be a few thousand sore legs up in Newcastle tonight that's for sure!

The next fortnight I will be tapering my training and getting my body ready for the 13.1 mile extravaganza that is the Folkestone Half  Marathon.  At least after today, I definitely know I can do it as I probably could have managed another 1.1 miles earlier today.  

Need some motivation to get me through it...