Day 84 - Saturday 4th September: Charney 20

Run: 20 miles
Time: 3 hours 19 minutes 56 seconds



On Monday I ran 18 miles from Stanford - Denchworth - Charney Bassett - Lyford - West Hanney - Southmoor - Charney Bassett - Gainfield - stopping just short of Stanford and walking back to cool down.

Today I ran almost the same route, but in a different order, joining up the bits I missed around Charney Bassett and between Lyford and Denchworth:

Stanford - Charney Bassett - West Hanney - Southmoor - Charney Bassett - Lyford - Denchworth - Stanford.

I deliberately ran it more slowly, so completed the extra 2 miles in an extra 27 minutes. It may not have been much further, but it certainly was much harder. Although I did still manage to up the pace on the last couple of miles, completing the last one in a bit over 9 minutes, so overall I'm still happy with the outcome.

I set off later than planned as I realised I'd forgotten to get any more gels and was down to my last two. It would have been a real struggle to get round this long distance without the added fuel on the way round to keep me going. So I nipped into Abingdon first to grab a couple of Go gels from Fit2Run. Not my normal brand, but they did the job. I have used them before so knew I didn't run the risk of an adverse reaction for trying them out for the first time!

I'm glad that when you run a marathon there are water stations on the way round. Today I took a litre of water and 750ml of lucozade sport, and although I'd drunk most of them towards the end of the run, my arms were feeling it from having had to carry the extra weight all the way around with me!