Rob's Running Blog

17km Long Run – Sunny – Canal towards Marple – 1h 43m 07s

First really long run in a couple of weeks, and at 17k or about 10.5 miles, the longest I have done to date!

There was a carnival parade on outside my house, so I took a detour round some back streets instead of heading straight down the road to the woods. This got me nicely warmed up though. I was planning to do 8 miles, but to carry on beyond that if I felt like doing more, so I got to the canal trail heading towards Marple, and whereas last time I had turned back at the long tunnel (Woodley Tunnel), this time I braved this dark and dank 160 metre long affair, with a nice splash into God knows what in the pitch darkness near the middle of the tunnel! Running through a dark tunnel with uncertain footing was certainly a test, but I kept going and made it through to daylight!

I decided to keep going along the interminable canal path until I got to 10k, and then turn back – anything else was madness, as the path goes on for many miles and branches off onto other canal networks further on, so I didn’t want to get carried away and strand myself!

I was feeling good all this time, and even managed little bursts of extra pace now and then, but was generally going very slowly (about 6 mins per k). On the way back I did start to look forward to stopping, and by the time I got to the 17k mark, I considered carrying on up Stockport Road to make it a round 11 miles, but decided my legs had had enough without adding a steep hill into the equation, and I think I was right as my legs felt very wobbly on the 10 minute walk home.

All in all a good run and didn’t feel too bad afterwards, apart from feeling pretty sleepy a few hours later!