Day 74 was a 7pm start. That meant two things. Running the tried and tested route from home to Morpeth and back. Oh and it would require a head torch for the pitch black bits. The advantage of this route is that I know where the slippy parts are.
I was confident that last week's fall was a one off. It was the first one since 2009 after all. That particular one was caused by running too close to Carlton on a lunchtime run. That meant I didn't see a protruding stone until it was too late!
Back to day 74 and just as I was thinking how it was dry for a change, it started to rain!
I made it to the outskirts of Morpeth in decent time. I added a couple of laps around the county hall car park for good measure.
I made it back to Stannington and I well and truly hit the wall. I felt like I had zero energy left. After that, it was simply a case of getting to the next lamp post. Once that was achieved, I focussed on getting to the next one and the next one and so on.
I reached my house after 11 miles. This meant that I had to run a mile further into Bedlington and back to complete half marathon number 74 for the year. That wasn't good for morale! Those last 2 miles seemed to go on forever. A final time of 03:39:42 was very poor indeed. The day in and day out effort continues to take its toll. The main thing is that the 365 campaign is still going and the donations are still being made to St. Benedict's Hospice.
Day 74 was dedicated to the memory of Jimmy Bell. It was 16 years since Jimmy passed away after a long battle with cancer. I mentioned this on the Run Geordie Run Facebook page. The amount of engagement that followed spoke volumes about how well thought of Jimmy was.
Days 75 and 76 were both done on the treadmill. Times of 03:23:15 and 03:22:02 respectively were achieved. Both runs were a slog but the advantage of running on the treadmill is that it dictates a steady pace.
I was absolutely exhausted after the day 76 run. There was the small matter of a flight to Barcelona later in the day to contend with on top of that. I made it to the hotel in Barcelona just before midnight. I can hardly remember my head hitting the pillow.
Day 77 was the slowest off all days. The 13.1 miles involved next to no running. It was a simple case of moving forward. It was very much an active recovery.
My intention was to journey through the usual landmarks and then to the match to watch Newcastle play Barcelona. I wrapped the mileage up before I made it to the stadium.
It took 04:21:08 to complete the miles on day 77. Thankfully, I was able to get the train back to the hotel where I had the luxury of having 5 hours sleep before the flight home.
Day 78 started with a 7am flight back to Newcastle via Paris. There were no delays and I was able to start running from Newcastle Airport at 2pm. The finish line was my car which was parked in Gosforth.
The feeling of tiredness was as bad as ever. To add to the difficulty, I was carrying my backpack. As has been the case many times this year, I made the route up as I went along. It was a grand tour of Woolsington, Kingston Park, Kenton, Cowgate, Fenham, Westgate Road, Newcastle City Centre, Jesmond and finally Gosforth. It took 03:50:11 to get to the finish line. What a long day!
Day 79 was another 8pm start and another treadmill effort. A time of 03:18:00 was the quickest I'd ran since day 67. With such a busy week of running, work, football and travelling that made no sense. Not for the first time in my running life, you just don't know what you're going to get sometimes.
Day 80 was an afternoon run from the top end of Druridge Bay back to home in Bedlington. The first 3 miles were on what little beach was left and the adjacent dunes. It was very tough going underfoot but the views of the Northumberland coastline more than made up for that.
I've ran passed many different types of animals over the last 12 months. I was able to add a seal to the list. It was making its way back into the sea.
I stopped for a brief chat with my old neighbour, Andy, who was out walking his dog. I was soon on my way again through the dunes.
I decided to take the recently advertised King Charles III England Coast Path. It took me round the coastal side of the power station. I've ran round here many times but never on this path.
The route was quite straightforward at first. There wasn't a soul about. Once I got round the power station I had to navigate my way through the dunes. There were numerous motorbikes racing around me. Some of the signs had been knocked down. I don't think I ended up doing the most efficient (or official) route in the end.
I could hardly go wrong if I simply hugged the coast line (and avoided the motorbikes). I eventually passed a sign that warned about an eroded path. It looked ok to me.
I made my way across the golf course at Newbiggin. The signage wasn't great and thankfully there were no golfers to be seen.
The path eventually crumbled away and I simply made my way down the side of the golf course.
The photo of me on the coastal path reminded me very much of one that was taken during the run across the USA in 2011. I still had over 3000 miles to run when that was taken. Thankfully, the image below was the half way point for day 80.
The temperature dropped considerably as I ran out of Newbiggin. I made it to the Spine road after 8 miles and, yet again, I felt that the tank was empty.
As darkness fell and a rare on road section I reached East Sleekburn. I was pleased to have street lights and a path for the last 2 miles. A final time of 03:39:03 was achieved. Another slow half marathon but another complete one all the same.
Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me in aid of St. Benedict's Hospice. The grand total is currently £1616.83 for this campaign. Please visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/rungeordierun365 if you'd like to support my crazy campaign to run 365 half marathons in 365 days.
