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It’s been some time since I updated the blog. Frankly I’ve been busy what with helping to take care of the tiny human being that now lives with Kata and I. Running at weekends is a struggle, and I think the last time I ran a Parkrun was Christmas day. I am not overweight and slow. On the bright side I have still managed to keep up The Most Runningist Year Ever and I am on Day 648. I have the Alloa Half-Marathon this weekend and I will just be trying to get round it – I’m trying to think of it as training rather than racing because my PB is in no danger whatsoever.
A couple of weeks ago I ran with Keith and Ewan a route that we run from work quite often – it includes two ascents of Calton Hill. We pegged it round in 33:19 and that got me to wondering how fast I could run that route if I really tried. Keith threw down the gauntlet last Friday by running it in 32:01, and today I tried to beat that. I did. Just. In fact it was amazing how close our times were as I finished in 31:53 and that was me running as fast as I could. I left nothing out there.
The route starts with a long and gentle incline from work at The Royal Bank on Dundas Street up to the bottom of Calton Hill. This does involve crossing Leith Walk which is a very busy 4 lane road in the city centre at lunch time, and then London Road, a very busy 2 lane road in the city centre at lunch time. This can cause delay. Fortunately I was quite lucky, played a bit of real life Frogger, and made it across in relatively short order (I had agreed the rules of the race meant I wouldn’t pause my Garmin even if I had to stop). From the base of Calton Hill it’s a short and steep ascent which is very challenging. I ran by some very confused looking tourists and reached the summit exactly 11 minutes after starting out from work – it normally takes me about 13 minutes to get here so this was decent. Also, we would usually pause here to catch our breath and congratulate ourselves before running down the hill and heading towards Holyrood Palace. Not today. Today I ran straight on down the hill.
Heading down the hill I checked my watch and saw that at the half way point I was on track to easily beat 32 minutes, but I was aware that I still had to effectively run up 2 hills on the way back, as opposed to the one on the way here so it was going to be interesting. I literally had no idea what my time would be.
From Holyrood Palace at the bottom of The Royal Mile I took a right turn and headed up to Regent Road which would return me to the base of Calton Hill again. The run up to Regent Road is very hard. A very steep climb which always kills me, and once again instead of stopping at the top for breath and to applaud myself, I ran straight on. I noticed at the top of this hill that where I definitely lose time is….the top of hills. It is very hard indeed to reach the top of a hill then to immediately push on at speed. The mental and physical reflex is to recover and take it easy.
A short bit of flat to the bottom of Calton Hill and back up I went. I reached the top for the second time, nearly wiped out a bunch of tourists posing with a selfie stick (really) and ran down. I had 8 minutes left to beat Keith’s time and I was 1.6km away from the end and it was all downhill from here. Got lucky again with the traffic, pushed my tired legs on as much as I could, and the next glance at my watch told me that I had been running for 31:26 – I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.
Make it I did. Finished in 31:53 and must have looked ridiculous to any colleagues that saw me rock up outside work, pink faced and dripping in sweat.
This lays down a marker for next time (Friday?). 31:53 to beat, and it was useful to get a hard run in ahead of the Alloa Half this weekend, even if the distance was 6.8km compared to the 22km I will need to run on Sunday.
