health and fitness: How was your weekend running?

dimanche 28 juin 2015

How was your weekend running?

My first long run for what seems like forever certainly felt like a grind, at least in the last few miles. What did the weekend hold for you? As always, share your stories below the line

Having had a minor bug last week, I embarked on yesterday’s 17-miler with rather a lot of trepidation: not since just after London marathon have I done a run of over about 13 miles. As it turned out, it was rather enjoyable. At least for the first 10 miles, which involved ‘joining’ a 10k race going along the north side of the Thames and having brief chats with a few participants. After that I started to feel my legs a bit more, but I got it done, which sometimes is all you need to boost the confidence.

Meanwhile over in Oregon, some - ahem - rather faster runners - and some rather controversial ones - were taking to the track. While Kara Goucher and Galen Rupp faced questions about Alberto Salazar, a runner with a much more uplifting story won the 800m. Alysia Montano garnered headlines last year when she ran the same race at seven months pregnant - at a very sedate pace for her, though most of us could but dream of calling an 800m time of 2mins and 32secs sedate .. This year she was back, extremely cute baby in tow, and won in 1min 59secs. An uplifting story at a time when athletics is going through the mill (even, depressingly, called a “niche sport” in that Sports Illustrated article).