Splits for my k’s were:

5:39
5:48
6:05
5:56
5:52
5:54
5:40
5:41
5:39
6:09 (gel stop/slow)
5:38
5:24
5:24
5:25
5:43 (struggling with pedestrians!)
5:11 (clear road and a sprint!)

Also felt a bit sick and light headed drinking my morning coffee, so wondered about even running today never mind doing a 10 mile long run. So I thought I would set off and take my bus pass and some cash so I could always make an emergency stop and get back if I needed to!

It turned out to be a great run and any feelings of tiredness, nausea or tight-lungedness soon dissipated. I was targeting a sub 1 hr 30 time and felt good after a few k’s, and felt I could keep going around 5:30/k pace but I was running a new, more or less random route, and it turned out to have some monster hills! Very long and quite steep, as well as a shorter one in Vernon Park (which has some killer hills as part of my next 10k!) which I sprinted up and astonished this lad on his bike as I blasted bast! Good thing about the run was that the hills slowed me down, but I was able to resume pace once things flattened out again.

I was feeling good at 12k and thought I might be able to push a bit as I was behind schedule for the target time due to the hills, but I was on course for a certain 10 mile PB, until the long snaking hill back up into Bredbury, which I dealt with OK, but after nearly a mile of it getting steeper I had to walk for a couple of minutes and after that I was flagging for the rest of the run, and had to just keep the legs turning over, with the thought of stopping and raiding the Spa shop in the garage keeping me going. Ticked over only 20 seconds off my 10 mile PB in the end, but I regard this as my best 10 miler, as it was pretty hilly and the PB one was totally flat albeit along the canal – a route I am still avoiding after picking up my injury on it last year.

Appropriately raided the Spa for Gatorade, Monster Munch and chocolate then walked the last few miles home. I must take more cash next time as I could have done with an extra chocolate bar to sustain me

Really needed the drink, but 10 mile mission accomplished, though it hurt a lot by the end and was going very very slowly but enjoyed it.

After the long tunnel, my feet and legs were soaked and numb with the freezing water! I was still feeling good though, and turned back as planned. On the way back I started to feel quite heavy legged and felt I was tiring – but with only 4k to go to reach the 10 mile mark, I knew I could do it. Shortly after that my right hip started to twinge a bit, so I slowed, and just decided to make it back to Hulme’s Wood so I could then walk home. I passed what I thought was the right marker before my entry back into Haughton Dale via the waterfall, but soon I was approaching the cobbled footbridge on the way to Hyde, so had to turn back. This was when the real problems began – I headed into what I thought was the right path, and this ended up being a dead end into bushes. Out again, and I tried the next one – this looked more promising, but was very unfamiliar, I thought if I followed the path it must lead back through to Haughton Dale – I had no idea where the correct path had gone! There was a treacherous path, wet and unstable, over a deep drop, and then the path went down a very steep hill covered with tree roots, and I ended up at the side of some kind of river or stream, with no further way forward – now I was at the bottom of a huge hill, and looking up it I couldn’t make out where the “path” was I had just come down, so I had to make my way up and it was almost vertical; I had to grab tree roots with my hands to drag myself up at some points! Finally I got back to the canal and the next path I tried, although unfamiliar, did lead through to the waterfall. I had expended a lot of energy for a 10 minute kilometer and was feeling really dead now, but managed to tick over the last k and by 16.1 at the foot of the hill back up into Haughton Green I could hardly pick one leg up after another.

It was a struggle to walk home, and the hip started flaring up more and more. After sitting down to check a few emails, etc, I stood up and almost fell over, wincing with the pain of putting the slightest weight on my right hip. I had to take mega painkillers to be able to do a couple of things I needed to do. In all, I think the atrocious underfoot conditions are what caused both my hip problem and unusual tiredness – there was a lot of slipping and sliding, running at odd angles with weird impacts and over such a long distance/time this took its toll. The Indiana Jones excursion into the wilderness didn’t help either, as I was already struggling by then!

Ah well, it is a lesson learned, that 10 milers over rough underfoot conditions are probably not a good idea, at least for me. Maybe 5 miles next time, and when the hip is better I will try a long run on the road.

Just the second time I’ve ran this far, and a few minutes faster than the last time