Snow running...

I woke up yesterday morning at 6.15am, looked out of the window and what did I see... a thin covering of snow. Bum. I thought to myself perhaps this will clear by 7.30am when I go out for my long run. No such luck.

However as luck would have it Helen who runs ahead of me worked out as my ice warning system. She ran ahead, slipped and slided and then stopped to warn me where she had slid so I didn't mirror her! Genius. Every runner should have one!

Anyway having had a chest infection for the past week, I only had a 3 mile run on Tuesday last week and a few days on the bike and cross trainer at the gym. Antibiotics having now kicked in, it was definitely time to attempt the half marathon distance and try and get this training properly under way as I feel it's been a bit stop-start so far.

I mapped out my run 13.06 miles and at 7.30am me and Hels set off - in the snow.

There was a lovely sunrise yesterday, it felt really good being up and out so early in the crisp cold with the sun coming up. The run took us through Little Wymondley, Gravely, Baldock, Letchworth and Hitchin.

Up until about mile 7 I was feeling good, hadn't even had the usual difficult first 2 miles but around mile 8 the joints were starting to feel it, my knee was niggling and I was feeling the cold. Between Baldock and Letchworth is a small incline and that was where I hit my wall, my legs felt frozen and I felt like even though I was running I was going backwards. I kept on going though with my run now looking way more like the shuffle I thought it would! I shuffled onwards at a snails pace, I couldn't even get my legs to move a bit quicker when I knew there was only a few hundred yards to go!

Finally we finished. 2hrs and 25mins later. What's more according to Helen's gadget we had run 14.1 miles and her gadget is usually spot on! So we ran either 13 or 14 miles, I struggled and my knee is definitely proving to be an issue, I am starting to ask myself what have I got myself into, but hopefully the long runs will get easier if I keep putting the effort in.

Today my legs are a little achy, but my shoulders are aching worse and that was from carrying shopping bags yesterday afternoon!!! Well there has to be some reward for running half a marathon right?