Conditions were a little on the warm side for a crack at the 8.4 mile route around Gosforth and the Havannah Nature Reserve. I was accompanied by young Steven from work and he set off in spectacular style, setting a very good pace indeed. We managed to do the first mile in 08:37 and I suspected early on that I might be on for a PB. I know I should be training at a slower pace but I just can't help it! I've got this new found speed and I want to put it to good use!We were attacked by thousands of flies at the 3.5 mile mark. I could have done without that as I cannot stand flies! I must have looked like a right loony, trying to run while waving my hands around in an attempt to keep the flies away. They soon went as we hit open space and this allowed me to concentrate on keeping up the pace that young Steven had started.
Just over an hour had past and we hit the Great North Road on the way back to base. I knew then
that it wouldn't take that much of an effort for a PB. Young Steven was suffering slightly in the heat so I ran at a pace to make sure that I wouldn't get too far in front of him while making sure that the PB was still on the cards. To his credit he dug in and finished only a few seconds behind me. I was very pleased with the final time of 01:16:56, knocking nearly 4 minutes of my previous PB and a whole 15 minutes quicker than various times in January and February. I should add that I was also in the gym at 07:15 this morning for an hour. I'm trying to build this into my daily routine in an attempt to get my weight down to less than 16 stone when I start the big run.As you can see from the split times (pictured) I was nowhere near the 10 minute mile pace I'm supposed to be running at!
