Training - Day 62

The day has arrived - 19 miles carrying injuries to back and both legs. It was a scary thought and we had to be up even earlier than usual to get kids ferried to various locations so preparation wasn't great. I decided that I had to be sensible about it and set off at a deliberately slow pace. The first mile was agony but as I climbed the hill past Upton house the pain started to ease as things loosened up. Joss had mapped out an extra part to the route to go round Upton and it was at that point that my feet started to hurt. I decided, though, that the more you thought about pain, the worse it seemed to get so tried to put all thoughts of that out of my head and concentrate on the take-away and wine I had planned for the evening. It was a long, hard run but the weather couldn't have been better and I was glad with my decision not to do any of the water carrying - if my legs hurt I wanted it to be for the running and not because of what I was carrying. At the end of the run there was the biggest high that I've felt throughout the training and we stopped and hugged in the street. Sort of regretted, though, that the end point was right outside the pub. WE knew how far we'd run/cycled but the locals after a few pints didn't.....
As we walked back home I shared with Joss my thoughts of not concentrating on pains and said how my feet had started to hurt in Upton (3 miles into the run) but I manfully thought past it. As you do when you speak, you act out what you're saying and so when I mentioned my feet I pointed to them. It was at this point I noticed the new red motif on my sparkling running shoes. Maybe I should have taken more notice. At home the reveal was non too pleasant but luckily Joss knows my strengths and weakesses and so had the smelling salts handy so it only took 5-10 minutes to come round after seeing all the blood. Another frrezing bath (they had better be doing me some good) cleaned me up so that you'd notice the blisters on the other foot more than the cut on the first and I feel that I have been truely initiated into the running world. That was nearly 3 hours of running - just another hour and a bit to go and I'll have run a marathon.....