All week I promised myself a longer run today. Luckily this morning the weather was good, some weak sunshine and no wind so, as planned, I woke at 7.30 aiming to set off by 820. This would give me time to run 6 km and be home by 9.30, allowing time to shower, have breakfast and even do my makeup before going out at 10.30. I put NRC’s 6k run on the headphones and off I went.
Last time I did this run I misjudged the distances so had to double back on myself at the end so today I took a different route. Terrain went from a good grassy path to a concrete farm road then a stony but flat track. It’s lovely being alone in the countryside. As a woman it’s rare to find an environment that feels safe but here it’s flat and empty. There’s nowhere for a bogeyman to hide (I hope).
Followed the track for a while then took another path which turned to the sea wall. This one was a bit narrow and bumpy. Coach Bennett warned he was going to do a few fast bits at this point. Miraculously, just as I had to speed up another concrete road appeared. This run was truly going my way.
As I approached the sea wall there was a gate. No matter, there were gaps to the side easily big enough for me, didn’t even have to slow down. Plus, joy, stairs up to the path on the top of the sea defences. By now I was around 4.5k into the run and going strong. I’d forgotten it was 6k not 5k....oops. Realised my error but carried on and even sped up. I saw with some satisfaction the place which I used to think was as far as I could possibly run back when I was doing C25K, now it’s just another landmark, progress!
Reached the end of the run, 6k completed, but I was still a little way from the fence which marks the final walk home. Decided to continue running until I reached it. Final distance 6.27km in 54.30 minutes, only 1.16 minutes more than the 6km last week. As a bonus, negative splits too. Although I was running faster it felt like less effort.
I’d dithered all week about whether to do 6km or 4 miles, shouldn’t have worried, I did both 😁 (and got home in time for breakfast)
A spontaneous 4 miles 
