There's something going on around here...

Well there was yesterday anyway. Knowing the heat was going to get to me if I went out later in the day, I decided to get out of the house at 7:30am for a long run. The Maidstone HM is now only 14 days away so I thought I better start the training at some point and it seemed as good as any. I pulled on my trainers and headed out on a 15.4km route I'd been doing earlier in the year.

As I don't listen to music when running, I sometimes need something to keep my awake and today was VW counting. It seems there was a show on somewhere as by the time I'd finished, I'd seen 21 classic VW campers and 8 classic Beetles. There really are some dedicated people in the world!!!

Anyway, the route is an undulating little fellow that always tests my legs and 5-10km I could really feel something in my knee. Not a pain so much as some discomfort. Oh dear I thought but as with the majority of my running hypochondriac-ism, it settled down a bit as I was coming back along the road to home after around 12-13km.

At this point my brain decided that it would be good mentally if I could get 17km under the shoes as leaving only 4km extra to do on the day would just be a case of pushing on mentally so as I got closer to home, I suddenly took a detour and headed up another hill. The High St was coming alive now as it was close to 9am but I continued up the hill, past the other end of my road, up another hill and the started the steady descent back to home. Then the knee did it again but this time with pain. I slowed right down an got back and then id A LOT of stretching and touch wood, this morning it seems OK if not a little achy (along with the rest of my legs).

My pace was a lot slower than my recent 10km outing but 17:3km was completed in 1:32:55 and it's just a relief to have done some distance. It's not going to be quick but at least I know I should be able to complete it now.