Spent this weekend in Crickhowell, with the Black Mountains stretching away to the north offering endless options for activity.
With the Nice-Cannes Marathon looming Martin and I used Friday afternoon to fit in our long run.
Setting out from Crickhowell we found the Monmouth to Brecon canal and ran for 7 miles towards Talybont. The trip out was beautiful. We were running a section of the canal I'm not familiar with so the sights were new and the sun was shining showing the views out over the valley and towards the Black Mountain at their very best.
On the way back, the 7 mile return journey seemed endless. We had passed under 23 bridges on the way out, and we agreed to alternate taking the lead for two bridges at a time, so the count down of bridges began... and went on... and on... and on. A friend of ours had been saying just the day before that he was considering running a 100 mile race along a canal. I realised there and then that running along a canal bank for 100 miles was not for me. The lack of variation made the run tough psychologically, and for me, the biggest challenge of any run is battling the mind demons. Running back along the canal on Friday, the mind demons were running riot!
At the same time in the Llanberis Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Championships, the amazing Lizzy Hawker was taking part in a 24 hour race, running a 1km circuit over and over again for 24 hours! The psychological strengeth required to keep going must be immense. Lizzy ran 244km!
14 miles did my head in on Friday! I definately need to work on building up my positive mental attitude. I definately could do better!
We consoled oursleves with a pint at the Bridge End Inn which marked the end of our route, but, none the less, 14 miles done!
Crickhowell Canal Run at EveryTrail
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