Long run - Middlewood Way - (Sunday 10/02)

Really didn't fancy 20 miles after Saturdays race at Wythenshawe Park, but the beauty of running in a group is your less inclined to turn the alarm clock off when it starts pecking at your head at 7:15am on a Sunday morning.

Met up at 08:30am at the start of the Middlewood Way beside Strines station - ideal for long runs as its straight and relatively flat (slight incline on the way out) which helps when your trying to do a negative split on the way back.

Nice sized group, but all pretty sprightly - Steve (sub 3hr marathon), James (2:45hr marathon),, Neil (3:10)hr marathon and Gavin and Pete (marathon virgins but I am sure they both have 3hr capabilities - in fact I'm certain after todays long run).

I was expecting nice and steady 7:50's-8:00 min miles - not to be - straight into 7:35, 7:20, 7:15 - I'd seriously considered cutting it short as my legs were very heavy from yesterdays mud, but perservered and got to Tesco's Macclesfield in 1:13:40.

A quick drink (thanks Steve) and off we went again, I knew these next 10 were going to be hard, but its pulling these miles out when you do feel tired which will stand me in good stead in my attempt at getting a good for my age place (3:15hr) at London in April.

Managed to keep it nice and steady, but had to work very hard from mile 16 to keep the mile splits near to 7:30's - total time of 2:28:30, which is only a few minutes short of my PB for the distance (set at Trimple last year).

The rest of the group had really picked up the pace for the last few miles pulling out some sub 6:30's - great work guys !