Well, what an interesting weekend of running that was. After Friday’s childish stomp through the park, I felt compelled to get myself out of bed and along to the Saturday morning Parkrun in Blackweir. I was chuffed I made it, and more impressed than ever about the dedication of the volunteers to make the run happen.
My 5k time of 23m23s is the slowest for over a year, but I’ll take that for my first ever run on ice! That’s me in the yellow hat in the first pic (with thanks to Mike Rossiter for the pic), I look like I’m putting in a decent effort, but I’m not sure my gait would pass muster under analysis… 100 hardy souls made it round, unsurprisingly quite a lot down on the 300+ that normally turn up. I rewarded myself with a breakfast muffin from Tesco, before tromping the 2 miles home.
Today, long run day, I was planning to spend in the warm (boring) comfort of the gym, bashing out the miles on a treadmill, whilst swearing at the rolling news. Chris had other ideas however, and before you could say “Rocky IV training montage” we were out in the snow again. It was Chris’s choice of run today, and it included far too many hills for my liking! Finally, half way up Caerphilly mountain we branched off towards Lisvane and were rewarded with some great views, downhill runs and many quizzical looks from the locals. Amazingly, neither of us took a tumble, though both came mighty close on occasion. Most of the main roads were absolutely clear of snow and ice, so we used those wherever we could. You can see Chris bombing away from me in the picture below!
The last three miles, a circuit of Roath Park and lake were really hard going, and it helped a lot not running alone. We geed each other along, and talked about how these ‘bonus miles’ would help come Marathon day. At least I bloody hope they do, because I’m absolutely shattered now.
When I saw the forecast for this weekend, I never thought I’d get out for three runs. One tromp in the park; one organised run and especially the 12+ miles today. It has all left me with a warm glow; incredibly sore legs and a powerful hunger. Couple of recovery days ahead I think.
Vital statistics
Run: Saturday – 5k in 23m23s, not bad for ice-running! Sunday – 12.9miles in 2hrs5m. Probably the toughest run I’ve done apart from the marathon.
Spotted on Sunday’s run: worshipers braving the snow en route to church, perhaps to pray for another snow day tomorrow; snowy, lovely, though hilly Lisvane; Rhys Evans waving (encouragement I think!) in a warm car; lots of walkers with cheery/confused greetings as we ambled by – and, wonderfully, a radar roadspeed sign that (shockingly) clocked us at 6mph on the way through Lisvane.
dogs run free 
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