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13 miles at Half Marathon pace, as Milly quite rightly pointed out, would be very very difficult to achieve alone in training. I ran at Marathon pace today, (probably a little bit faster than M pace actually, but it would be nice to imagine I could ever again run this fast for the full 26.2)

With next weekend being the Lakes 50 there was little point in running long and slow this weekend. Instead I basically repeated the route of 7 days earlier.  I added in a small untimed loop (but which I know takes about 6 minutes to complete) and then resumed my stopwatch as I passed by the same place again. That explains why there are only 12 figures below for my claimed 13 mile run. There was also a mile jog before and after the 13.

Mile Splits

6:15

6:16

6:14

5:59

6:09

6:09

6:12

6:26 (included biggest climb and collecting pre-stashed water which I promptly dropped)

6:02

12:00 (10 mile marker has faded away)

6:19 (disappointing last mile but there are lots of roads to cross and a decent hill to climb)

By the time you also add in the part seconds the total was 1hr 14m 05sec, or 6:10.4 pace.  Last week was a fraction inside 6:12 pace, making todays run a marginally better result given the extra mile, the higher temps and also the severe battering I put my legs and body through during the midweek.

The splits are much more even this week too. It DID feel much harder than last week though, in fact it was a grueller to complete without losing pace. I made the mistake of having cereal for breakfast (instead of toast), and by halfway into the run a stitch was threatening to come on, making it unwise to forge on at 11-12mph when the gradient was helpful.

I am very pleased to have ran as fast as this, a pace which, incidentally, would give a marathon time of 2:41:45.

Thanks to AW for helping with the water/gel stash  - luckily, no well meaning villagers/desperate thieves removed said stash from hideyhole on this occasion  (t'was a hot and thirsty 24m run that day back in March)