9 October: Beauty and the Beast

Today I have to do The Run I Do Not Want To Run. The Last Long Run Before The Marathon. Luckily, it's p-ing down in the morning, so I can put it off until later. I briefly consider wet-weather training to acclimatise for Snowdonia, but I've got years of experience of rain of all Celtic nationalities so it's probably not going to make a lot of difference.

Long solo training runs from home are not my speciality. I've been lucky in my training: I've only had to do one so far, but this one cannot be avoided. A 20-miler visiting all the interesting corners of the Whitegate Way (it's a railway trackbed).

It's no surprise that I set off grumpily on a loop around the Common, and notice how much various muscles are complaining after Saturday's rough treatment. Down at the end, I head along the Weaver, dodging fishermen (now that's a good sport). I head up through Vale Royal Abbey, past the posh houses (why do posh people wear Wellington Boots? In the street? Is it compulsory from October to April?).

I've got three gels and one bottle of pop. I stop for a go at those at the end of the estate road, and turn down Grange Lane. At about 6.5 miles, I turn on to the Whitegate Way and surprise myself by noticing how nice the trees look, and how entrancing the effect of the sunshine through their leaves is. I'm either going soft or hallucinating. Back to business: past a couple having an affair (he's still in his suit, she's holding on much too tight for just gone 5 o'clock), assorted dogs, horseriders: is there no end to the obstacles that prevent me from running on the flat part of the track?!

It all goes a bit blurry until I get to Cuddington and turn around at the main road - then it goes all difficult and nasty until I remember I'm running uphill a bit. After the gates, when the track turns downhill again, it's really quite nice. On the first long run I did, I was ruined by the bridge: now I'm running at race pace. I'm still doing that all the way to the road, and I can even run a bit after that. The last hill isn't too bad for a change - and I'm so overjoyed by the end that I do an extra mile and a bit for fun.

Bloody marvellous. I might actually do this marathon.