Sunday, Week 13 of 15

Run: "18 Miles, Slow"
Time Taken: 193 mins
Total Mileage So Far: 469 miles

Week 13:
Total Weekly Mileage: 43.5 miles
Time running: 5 hrs 44 min

Despite my taper starting last week, this felt like my final long run - the last run out to Bingley until....who knows?

Started off as perfect running weather. Bright, windless and dry.

Jogged along at the usual pace and reached the top of the climb at 5 miles in the usual 40 minutes. The view up the Aire valley from there was really crisp, and took in Shipley, Bingley, Haworth and some windmills which must be somewhere near Lancashire.

The clarity of the view should have warned me. As I reached the bottom of the descent at Baildon it started spitting, and all the songs on my mp3 player suddenly started mentioning rain.

I was feeling very relaxed and even the climb up to the woods in Bingley felt easy, but by now it was starting to snow. I've never had anything like that at this stage in my training before, but then it's usually the first week in June.

Back along the canal in the sleet with the usual detours for closed off towpaths but taking it nice and easy and getting home slightly over the expected 2 hr 30 mins. Allowing for the extra distance I had to run, and also taking into account the fact I felt very comfortable at the end, I was happy with that.

Did today's run with no pain in my legs, no tiredness and no stitches or stomach cramps. The day gets closer and now it's just a matter of staying fit.