It's been a while welcome back to my blog "RUNNING FOR FUN & RUNNING FOR FUNDS

So what's happened since we last met?

Well strangely enough even more running! After the heat of the Paris Marathon came even more heat with my first ultra marathon the GU36 in Guernsey (Channel Islands) 36 miles around the beautiful coastline of this idyllic island paradise, then 3 races much closer to home all in Glasgow
The Giffnock 10k around Rouken Glen which is kind of handy as I work there.......

#Boathouse Rouken Glen

Then another 10k from the Riverside museum into George Square on the Men's Glasgow 10k
The route is pretty much flat all the way and I managed 49:24 a new 10k PB for me. I am not really a fast runner so pleased with that.

NEW PB 49:24

Riverside Museum

Ready for the off on Glasgow Mens 10k

 The final race of 2017 was once again the Great Scottish Run half marathon Glasgow always a favourite of mine. It wasn't my fastest but a reasonable 1:51 on what was my 5th Glasgow GSR

So onto 2018 and a few exciting new races as well as some I have done before. I decided that I would try and stretch myself further by adding another marathon and ultra and closer together than before.

So I signed up for the Glentress forest trail half again, Loch Katrine half, Stirling & Rome marathons and GU36 & Run the blades ultra, back also for the Giffnock 10k phew!!!!

The Scottish winter as usual made training runs interesting especially up at the wind farm in snow and ice, but you have to take what mother nature throws at you and just get on with it.

NO PAIN NO GAIN or so the saying goes :-)

February Glentress Forest in Peebles is always going to be a bit wet, cold & chilly so no surprise I had to wrap up warm for this one, rock hard ice on the route made for tricky going and I nearly went head over heels on more than one occasion on this race . It's quite a big elevation so the time is not so important as staying upright on this one, but still a good workout all the same.

 A few weeks after Glentress it was onto the Trossachs and my first time on the Loch Katrine half marathon.There was a weather warning for snow on race day and sure enough on my way there the heavens opened and I was lucky to make the start of the race and not get stuck on the motorway.
But make the start I did and off we went in the snow for a run half way around the loch and back,with a few flurries of snow and wind along the way for good measure.

Loch Katrine HM

 So after a couple of half marathons it was time to step up to the challenge of 2 full marathons in Rome & Stirling. Having been to Rome before I knew that this was going to be something special as the marathon course passes through or by many of the cities famous landmarks. I was also worried about the heat as Paris was 24C last year and Rome was looking to be nearly as hot, so I decided to travel to somewhere hot prior to Rome for heat acclimatisation, obviously Glasgow is not known for it's heat. So I ended up in Valencia for a few days and enjoyed several long walks and several runs mainly through the  park that runs the length of the city.

So with a good number of miles under my belt I headed to Rome fairly confident of coping with the heat. Having gone through my well rehearsed pre race routine I walked the 20 minutes or so to the start at the Colosseum,  it was a gloriously sunny morning and passing all the sun bathed buildings and walking down a narrow side street directly towards the Colosseum was a heady and emotive start to the day.

 

After getting ready and dropping my kit bag i made my way to the start area and waited in the toilet queue in vain (not for the first time) then moved on towards the start line. Unfortunately I don't any photos from the start but you get magnificent views of some of the best buildings and statues in Rome from here just an awesome view. The marathon route takes you past and through some of the most iconic sights in Rome including the Vatican, Spanish steps, Piazza Narvona & Castel Sant'Angelo to name a few and is truly magnificent. It was a hot day and as expected the heat finally took it's toll in the later stages of the race and I started to lose pace and eventually dropped back from the 4:15 pacers at around mile 22 and ended up with a time of 4:43

But despite the cobbles, heat and need for the toilet it was still another amazing race experience

So...what do you do when you have run a marathon? You go run another one of course :-)
3 weeks later then I was full of optimism for a new PB in Stirling, a relatively flat course, no heat, no cobbles and plenty of running under my belt, what possibly could go wrong....

#Maratonaroma #Romemarathon #Stirlingmarathon #Run #ukrunchat #runningfriendsscotland #Running # marathon #ukrunchat #runningblog