So that's 26.2 miles then

The Cancer Research Shine Marathon is done - 26.2 miles around the streets of Manchester. No running was allowed so this was purely a test of my physical and mental stamina, added to by not starting until 10pm...

Organising 7500 walkers of various fitnesses into 2 walks takes a bit of doing, and the inevitable delays as we waited for the balloons, to get out of the GMEX and also to get going took us to well past 10pm, and then there was a slight navigational problem when walkers met the main drag... Ho Hum, but we got started...

The buildings weren't illuminated - not sure what happened there, so it really was a a case of head down and focus on the walking - the time of the walk meant that there wasn't that many supporters so it was a focus, walk, check pace and see what happens.

And what happened, well I'm happy... My total time was 7:05 - only 6min slower than the walk/run I did back in November, but the really good news was my moving time - so all of the stopping for traffic (and the occasional pit stop) being taken out was 6:42... Now its always difficult to work out the impact of those stops, but I'm starting to believe that I can take on Edinburgh and do myself and all the training justice.

Edit - for those interested the route is here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30477093

Sunday, as you can guess, was a bit of a wipeout and despite burning over 3000 cals I wasn't very hungry, so today was a gentle 5km walk to stretch the kinks out and this as a treat...

So a day off today, work tomorrow... And this weekend is my last VLSR... 20miles to Southport:-)

And my sanity must be going - just paid for possible entry to London 2011

TTFN

Paul

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