Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
A Cromarty Half Marathon
by Russell Turner - 11:22 on 08 March 2025
At last, the wind has dropped; the weather is mild. Spring has arrived, just in time for the Week 9 long run. Conditions were so good that I decided to run to Cromarty and back as part of the 2:45 time or 16 miles distance (whichever comes first) demanded by the training plan. After a comfortable all-run easy 50mins the previous day, my target (just to complicate matters) was 25k (15.5 miles) in the time at a 5:1 run/walk. My thought was that I’d enjoy the psychological benefit of kilometres passing quicker than miles.
The pace required – 6.36min/km – proved hopelessly optimistic from the start, whatever the weather. I didn’t care: traffic was light, and accommodating, and time on feet was more important than speed. The sun shone.
A loop around half of Cromarty meant pavements, sharp turns and a few people but didn’t slow me too much; soon I was back out of the village on the return route, pace holding well. There was a slight increase in effort as the kilometres ticked by but my heart rate remained modest, averaging a mere 117bpm. Half marathon distance was reached just after 2:30, by when I’d taken a slight detour so I could reach the time needed before arriving at The Rural Retreat. I hit 2:45 and 23k almost simultaneously, 2k short of my arbitrary target, but the 1k walk home from the finish point helped make up some of that.
At only 14.3 miles run, I didn’t feel like I’d too much left in the tank at that pace, but that’s what the training’s for. With two half marathons and two proper long runs before virtual London, there’s still lots to do, and the virtual is only a training run for Edinburgh, where I hope the other runners will help keep my vitalised. And unless I break a leg on the way round, I won’t do worse than my previous Edinburgh effort.
Today is a lazy day, during which I’ll attend to a left leg that’s still stiffer than I’d like, ready for tomorrow’s Inverness 5k. Sub-30mins is my humble target, although beating 28:16 from last year’s Balmoral 5k would be nice; surpassing my 24:21 PB will not even be attempted.
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