Time: 9.55am
Route: Glennifer Braes
Distance: 18miles
Time Run: 2hr 45mins 04secs (av 9.10mins per mile)

We are away for a few days from this afternoon so I decided to do my long run at the beginning of the week. Also it is our club 7mile handicap race on Sunday afternoon so I will do the majority of my miles for the week over the next 3 days and then have a couple of easy 5mile runs before the weekend.

I set off just before 10am and the weather was great. It was a bit windy on the top but compared to some of my runs on the Braes recently it was superb.

View of Ben Lomond from my run on the Braes


I ran really well this morning and was feeling good! I ran two 7.45mile loops in 1hr 9mins 36secs (9.21 pace) and 1hr 8mins 40secs (9.13 pace). It was good to run the second one slightly faster. I felt I was holding myself back all through the run and so was pleased to be able to finish strong.

I drank 500ml of water and ate about 25 grapes. I reckon I lost 4lbs during the run. I ran in my blue shorts which have pockets which were ideal for carrying the grapes so I’ll be running the Fling in those shorts.

I must confess I spent most of the run thinking about the Fling - what my tactics will be, where I want to be when, how I want to feel at Beinglas etc etc. Surprise, surprise the race went very well in my mind and I ended up with a great time (and beat whwrunner as well!!!!). It’s good to be positive!

There have been some interesting posts on the whw forum over the weekend. Firstly Neal started a thread on helping me choose some music for my videos. Everyone is getting fed up with listening to the Proclaimers everytime so a number of suggestions have been given. Click here to read what folk have suggested.

If you have read the comments on a previous post on this blog you will seen some discussion about competition and running ultra’s. Brian also started a thread on the forum about this. I have replied with my thoughts and others are responding as well. So click here to read that one.

I’ve added mrs pacepusher to my list of favourite blogs on the right hand column. I know she will be very happy if you visit her site. mr and mrs pacepusher are running the London Marathon this weekend so I hope they have an easy week as they build up to the race.

I’m still waiting to hear how Thomas got on in the Connemara ultra race. I was thinking about him on Sunday and wondering how he was finding it.

Congratulations to whwrunner who had a great run in the Heaven & Hell Half Marathon yesterday. He finished 16th in a time of 1hr 33mins 25secs. Click here to read his report.

I’m not quite sure if I’ll be able to get to a computer for the rest of the week so if nothing appears until Friday don’t worry ….. I’ll be back!