Juneathon – Three Weeks In

Juneathon day 21, Runstreak day 113 and the day in 217 BC on which the Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.

Interesting day today, unfortunately no strategic military offensives akin to those of Hannibal, but interesting none the less.

I had kind of planned for today to be the start of a taper for the Endure24 (apart from one long, slow run planned for the weekend). Anna, Chris and I headed out at lunchtime, into the cold drizzly rain of a British summer.

All was going well until the 2 mile point – this is where we normally turn around and head back – we had been running at 8:30 pace to this point and Chris and I were a little ahead of Anna. As we stopped to turn around Chris started talking about going on for the 5.5 mile loop (I had done this on the previous two days already). Anna decided to turn around and head back, but suggested we carry on.

Off Chris and I trot, me expecting us to continue the 8:30 pace, but Chris had other ideas – he sprinted off into the distance. I couldn’t help myself, I raced off after him knowing I was going to smash myself again today. Mile 3 was faster, but there is a railway bridge crossing with a ton of stairs that inflates the time a bit, then it’s downhill for a bit… By the time we had crossed the bridge and headed on the downhill section we were really starting to nail it. I pushed things a bit and was a few metres in front of Chris by the four mile point.

I was still feeling okay at this stage, so decided to see just how fast I could go – I did a 6:34 mile – very pleased with that !!. Overall I averaged 7:30 pace, not as fast as yesterday, but the final 5K today was 21:30 – a big negative split.

Now I’m thinking / wondering how fast I could do a parkrun – sub 20 mins ? I need to get the Endure24 out the way first, but I think next up will be a fast 5K.