Train in rain

Day:         17
Distance:  10.18km
Time:        1:04:48 secs
Calories:   812 cals

An after work run on a cold, rainy night in January might not sound like the most appealing way to while away an hour of your time but that's how I spent my Wednesday night. To be fair, running in the rain is an improvement on running in snow and the rain actually helped to keep me cool.

This was a run that I had mapped as part of my half marathon training in 2010. On walkjogrun I'd mapped it as 12km, so I was a bit gutted when we got to the end and the Run Keeper App informed me we'd only covered 10 kilometres ... While I may not have covered the distance I was hoping for I did run for the amount of time specified in my training plan and, crucially, this run incorporated a number of hills so it's all good experience.

In other news, yesterday I was sent an online entry form to complete to guarantee my place in the 2011 London Marathon. The form asked for some fairly standard information (e.g. name, address etc.) and then threw a curveball by asking what time I anticipated completing the marathon in. Now, I've never run a marathon before so the very act of completing it will be something of an achievement but I have also given some thought to the time I'd like to complete it in.

When I ran the half marathon last year I aimed for a time of 1:40 mins. This was based upon the 50 mins it had taken me to complete a 10k race. I figured that a half marathon is essentially 2 x 10k (actually, it's just over 21k, but I didn't know that at the time), ergo 2 x 50 mins was doable. In the event, I completed the half marathon in 1:39 mins - which I was really happy with.

So, on the basis of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" I'm aiming for:

                 1:40 x 2 + a little contingency = 3:40 mins

Just seeing that target written down has made this whole marathon running lark seem a lot realer ...