W13KW#3 - Long Run

Plan called for a 20 mile run at 7.02 per kilometer. Initial plan was to have an early start, so set the alarm for 6am. When that went off, reset it for 7am and eventually got up at 10am! Got out the door just before midday!

My plan for the run was to run along the River Cam up to the city of Ely, almost exactly twenty miles away. Any of the paths that I'd been on along the river near Cambridge had a good quality tarmac or gravel surface so figured it'd be like that up to Ely. A couple of lads from work live up there and reckon it's a nice day for a day visit, so it seemed like a decent plan.

Weather was good for running - a bit overcast, slightly windy and looked like it might rain (it didn't in the end). First half hour was ok, though was struggling a little and stopped for a drink of water on the 30 min mark. Was averaging around 6m 40s per km up to this point. Set off again but once I hit the river I soon realised that the nice path I was expecting was on the otherside - the path on my side was just a rough track in a field along the river!

I couldn't seem to get into a rythm and was in a run \ walk strategy - eventually got across the river and onto a section of path I cycle along regularly, which made things easier. That only lasted for 2 or 3 km, as we got into the Fens proper. The path here is essentially on top of a flood barrier (dam?) and there were long walking sections over the rough ground.

After a long, long slog I made it to the little village of Upware - absolutely in the middle of no-where deep in the Fens. Came across a pub on the river that was serving food, so decided to call it quits after 20.57km and 2hrs 47m (8m 07s per km pace) and grab a spot of lunch.

I'd a tough call after that - continue onto Ely (still 12km away) over the same terrain or try and get a bus somewhere. I decided on the second option and was told the nearest bus stop would be in a nearby village. Thankfully the google maps feature on my iPhone proved invaluable here and 6km later (52m - 8m 36s per km) I was at the bus stop waiting for the bus home.

One lesson from this is that I'm no longer attempting to run routes I've not at least cycled before - if I wouldn't cycle on the route (I certainly wouldn't on todays route) then I'm not running on it.