pickupthepacepaul

On 3 April 2023, when most people were going back to work or off for half term, reminiscing on the weekends adventures, I was back on the tow path for another Marathon. By day 3, your body is starting to expect that you aren’t going to listen and rest, although my Garmin still recommended rest. It also flagged that I am overloading. 10 marathons in 10 days isn’t exactly normal, but it’s surprising how your body adapts. I arrived feeling no different than yesterday, and that extra day didn’t seem to make a difference to my body. You can check out Day 1 Here and Day 2 Here.

Day 3 is Dauntless. Showing fearlessness and determination. It is safe to say that anything from herein is dauntless.

I started early and managed to start at around 9 min a mile pace. Although I had no intention of sticking to this pace, it just felt natural. We went back to the blue bridge direction, and the path has dried a lot with just a few muddy spots on the laps. A lot of the runners had started before me, so there were lots of friendly faces out there, with a few who had come for the one day.

One person who had come for just the day was Alice, and as I went out for my 2nd lap, she was just starting. She would usually run a lot faster, but is coming back from injury, and was happy to run at a similar pace to me, so we did, and I spent the next 7 laps just chatting and running together.

The first lap she made me run slightly faster than I would have, and then throughout, although we slowed, I kept my pace far more consistent than I would have. We stopped at the aid station each lap and were in no rush, but then when we ran, we maintained pace, and I didn’t have a lap anywhere near as slow as day 1 and 2.

I had expected to run a similar time to yesterday, so I was thinking I would try to dip under 4:30, but with company and distraction, I finished just a minute slower than day 1. My official time is 4:17:30. Not only that, I finished feeling good. Alice asked if I wanted to make it an ultra and go out for another lap, but I wasn’t feeling that good, haha.