After clocking up exactly 23 miles this week before this morning’s Hemel 17 miler, my aching legs told me that the 23 miles had taken its toll. I felt my legs very heavy when I got up this morning. The -2oC temperature didn’t really pose a good sign for a good run !!
John and I arrived at the Boxmoor Cricket club at 8am. It was brutally cold and windy but sunny though. At least it was not raining or snowing otherwise the canal towpath would be soaked. We were joined by our friend Craig. Craig will run his first ever debut marathon this 
year to raise money for the Mind Charity. We were very sad to hear that Craig’s brother-in-law (his brother’s wife’s sister’s husband) killed himself a few months ago due to depression. He was only in his 30’s. The Mind Charity is to help people with mental health issues. John and I have sponsored Craig for his great effort for a great cause. Our club chair Alan ran from his house to the start to see us off. Alan only recently recovered from his bout of flu. We really appreciated Alan’s effort to come to cheer us on.
I seldom run with my scarf and gloves on but this time I didn’t take a chance. I wore 2 layers of Helly Hansen plus the Comets Club Vest, hat, scarf and gloves – the whole hog. As soon as I started running, my legs were very stiff. Oh well, I guess running in tired legs is a fact of life in marathon training. I went through the first 3 miles on the towpath in just over 10 minutes a mile pace. By the time I ascended to the Ashridge Forest from the towpath, I was overtaken by dozens of runners who started behind me. My pace fell to over 11 minutes a mile during the uphill. I only managed to pick up some speed during the descending. Every now and then, some lanky fit young lads and girls flew past from nowhere and surged ahead of me. I was probably overtaken by a hundred runners. It was a perishing cold day with gale wind. I tried to push hard but I couldn’t do any more and I finished in 3 hours 13 seconds. I was gutted that had I pushed the 14 seconds, I could have finished sub 3 hours. The consolation is that I have now completed a total of 40 miles run this week.
Craig did very well finishing in 2 hours 42 minutes. John finished in 3 hours 32 minutes. John said he was absolutely shattered. But he promised me he will do the Hemel 20 miler with me in a month’s time. John is only using this Hemel Trilogy for training. He is not running any Marathon this year though.