Another long run training day and seeing as we were already going to be near Alton, I asked 'im outdoors to drop me there so I could do the Alton to Petersfield Slow Way.
It was a cold grey day and not very inspiring. It was quite mild until the wind blew and then it was proper cold, and the wind didn't really stop, so I kept my jumper on.
The route was actually quite nice except for a short bit on a fast road near Chawton.
However we've had a lot of rain this week and the mud was terrible in places! To the point where it stole my shoe!! And there were 2 miles where I had to walk for pretty much the whole thing (40 mins) and I found that really hard. I just didn't seem to make any progress and just had to squlch through all this mud - soul destroying!
But where the mud let up the route wasn't bad. I did get covered in yellow pollen as I followed footpaths across bight yellow fields of rapeseed. And I saw lots of runners coming the other way doing the Emsworth to Basingstoke charity relay. And I went up and over the Shoulder of Mutton using the Hangers Way. No way you can run this in either direction it's so steep, but the view from the top was very impressive and the sun was just starting to come out too which helped.
Once I got to Petersfield I then continued home to take my miles up to the required 20. I was tired and moving slowly but that didn't stop it from hurting when I tripped and hit the dirt. I was very close to calling 'im outdoors for a pick up at that point. But with only 2 miles to go, I somehow found a little energy to pick myself up, dust off the worst of the mud and keep going. I'm glad I did now, but it was a very hard call at the time. Luckily as I was going so slow at the time I only scuffed my arm a bit and bruised my knee.
So another long run ticked off and only 4 big runs left until race day. I look forward to getting them ticked off my list.
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