Mental March

I get up this morning with the intention of running to work. Well... actually I don’t get up and in fact oversleep. It’s also so damn wet, so a run doesn’t particularly appeal. I get the bus in, in kit, with the intention of running home instead. As we’re just got skeleton staff in over this Christmas/New Year period everyone is treating these three days as dress down days, so I spend the day in running gear. I hope no one minds.

After work, I go off on my run because with what I’ve christened ‘Mental March’ coming up, I really have to get my finger out. ‘Mental March’ includes the 100 mile Cheshire Cat cycle ride, the 16 mile Nottingham to Derby Kilomathon run and the Sticky Toffee 18k trail run in Cumbria. L’s even proposing we front load a half marathon on to that lot, as we currently have week one in March free!

The weather is quite bright as I set off, if bright is the right word. It is after all dark. I head off from Pride Park towards Chaddesden. Running into a head wind, but then there always seems to be head wind on Pride Park, no matter which direction you go in. Once at the main road, I check the times of the R4 bus and aim to stay ahead of it, stopping to catch it just before it passes me. The electronic signs say I have a ten minute head start, so I run off towards Spondon. The bus takes a detour through the back streets there which buys me a bit more time. Eventually I make it to the edge of Borrowash, where I check the timetable and see the bus was due one minute ago. I decide that it’s best not to push on to the next stop and a few minutes later the bus appears. 6.5km covered so far.

I have a rest on the bus and get off in Stapleford, from where I run the remaining 10k home. I must say it went really well, at a really good pace as well, it was even enjoyable. So nearly 17km of running, with a bus break in the middle. The Kilomathon is 26km, so this is a quite a good start. I will hopefully increase my distance by 2km each week.