pickupthepacepaul

You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed, and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

On 11th May 2024, I took part in the Neo Run, with Phoenix Running Events. A timed event with a choice of how far you run. I, of course, ran a marathon. I use these events as my long training runs. It is great as it motivates me to go for a long run, and I use it to adapt my training. Sometimes, I will go for a set steady pace for the whole distance, and at other times, I will decide how long I want to run, then just shuffle the remaining distance to complete the marathon. With the fantastic medals on offer, how can I resist. I just wish I was able to make the Morpheus event.

In all honesty, when I woke up early for the marathon, I really could not be bothered. I was tired and with the beautiful weather, I didn’t fancy running for over 4 hours. But this is why I enter these events to keep me active. I decided to run my 154th marathon (or more) in a steady 4:30 hours. With a flexible start time from 07:00 – 08:30, I turned up a little later starting at 08:15.

It got warm quickly on the tow path, and I needed to stop at mile 12 for a toilet break. At 16 miles, I decided to call it a day from what was around a 4:15 marathon pace, and I went into a coffee shop to buy an ice-lolly.

I then decided to slow down and spent the final 8 miles from 18 miles, just taking it steady and doing the distance. It resulted in a slower time, but I was not in a rush, and I didn’t want to push. I have been using my fruit salad flavour SIS gels, which I love.

With dusty trainers and sunburn, I finished the marathon in 5 hours and collected this ginormous medal.

How was your weekend, did you go running?