I just finished a 27.39km run that lasted about 2hh:25mm:43ss !
With Southampton Marathon just two weeks away, Sunday was my last chance at a (longer) long run as a preparation run for the marathon itself. I'd decided during the week that Sunday was going to be the day and I'd try to run about 30km. The weather decided to be a pain, and I had the opposite end of the spectrum from my experience at the Norwich Half, and we've had roasting 24°C+ temperatures over the weekend. In order to save myself a lot of overheating, I woke up around 6:30AM and had some breakfast, and did a stretching session before heading out. It was nice and cool, especially under the trees, but it didn't take long until I was really struggling with the heat.
I'd planned a 32km route the day before, and the first half went really, really well. I absolutely eased the first 16km out with an average pace of about 4:45/km (a little slower than my target Marathon pace is going to be). The second lap I started struggling, unfortunately I could feel myself starting to blow up, and there's not much you can do to save yourself when you start to get the feeling. I had my last gel, and gave myself a 5 minute breather before heading on. Even with the 5 minute breather, the first 21.1km became my fourth fastest Half Marathon time ever, 1:46:54, (completely run on trails and with quite a bit of elevation), albeit nowhere near the PB time at Norwich Half, but still quite commendable. From then on, it was a lot slower (about 5:00/km) and I'd run out of water at that point, so the heat was really getting to me. I managed to get to around 23/24km before I needed another breather and I decided that wouldn't complete my second loop and just cut it 4km short.
I feel absolutely fine today, and apart from a little bit of soreness in my ankles (which was partly there before the run), I wouldn't know that I ran 28km yesterday. A very, very good sign as Bournemouth Marathon, back in October, was not very fun at all after experiencing some nasty knee issues - hopefully this is a sign that my legs are better prepared for the full distance this time.
In terms of what I have planned for the rest of the week, I'll be entering "taper" mode for the next two weeks, so nothing too intense on the legs. I think I'll probably have a cardio intense week this week, so I'll probably aim to get some shorter, faster efforts in and maybe try for a PB at Parkrun next Saturday (?). I'll also try to chuck in some core exercises and try and build up some strength as I found that worked wonders before Norwich Half.
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