A Super Long Run – Done?

Reader: I stopped at sixteen miles.

Then I had an ice cream, and then I carried on to the full twenty.

Yes, there was a big pause where I recovered somewhat, and no, I’m not going to do that on the big day, unless they decide to put an ice cream van just before we get to Inverness. But today, I did a hard thing, and as I’ve thrown the time goal out of the window and am just going to try and enjoy the fact that I’m stronger and have more stamina than when I began this training, I should be able to give myself a reward.

Granted, it might have been better at the end, but my car was not near an ice cream place. Regardless, I got the job, eventually, done and that was the main purpose, and I’m very happy about that.

It really did help that the weather was a lot cooler, with even a tiny hint of rain drops for a few brief minutes. It also helped that the going was flat and that I had my first ever super shoes on. I don’t want to wear them much, but I will be wearing them on race day, as I know they will just make it more enjoyable and I’ll recover more quickly. They were noticeably faster for less effort and while that skews my actual ability, for this distance, I’m okay with that. Plus, they were relatively cheap – £70 – as they are an old iteration: Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 2.

Weirdly, they didn’t make me any faster on my 5K this week than I have done already this year, but they make a big difference to my ‘easy’ pace. And as ‘easy’ pace is all I can manage to get a full marathon done, then these will be the shoes for me.

Over the next three weeks, I’m going to aim for a sixteen, an eighteen and then another final twenty miles on the long run days, but they’ll all be done in normal shoes. It’s just about layering on the stamina now. I’m not planning on going fast. I only wore them today to make sure that they wouldn’t give me foot problems if I ran for a long time in them. And to give me a confidence boost. 

And I am now a bit more confident that I can make it to the end on the big day.