I'm a huge fan of Friday exercise; it just sets you up for the weekend (and for Friday night drinks and pizza). So it was poopy that on Friday night this week I packed my gym plans in on the back of a nagging tummy ache which had been with me since about 11am. I was even pleased that I felt worse in the evening, because it meant my brain wasn't psychosomatically finding excuses not to run. 

But come Saturday afternoon, there I was on the tready for my planned long run. I had had a big breakfast and waited a few hours, and even gone and brought a new sports bra and gym towel in the meantime.

I set the timer for forty minutes - my longest run to date (I did do a forty minute jog a few weeks ago, but my most fervent fans will remember that I had about a two minute break after thirty minutes, at which point I had intended to stop, before I hopped back on again to keep Buzz company on his cooldown). 

So this was to be my longest uninterrupted run in perhaps almost a year. Given that I've been running 30 minutes strongly and picking up the pace, I had expected this run to be achievable with not too much cursing the day I was born. 

It was tough. It was. I was full of food, and my right calf cramped up all the way. I felt like I was over-pronating like a flat-footed chimp. I didn't hit the sweet spot when the endorphins kick in. I couldn't tune out and lose minutes at a time. I went slow: 5 minutes at 7.2 km/hr, 15 minutes at 7.5 km/hr, 10 minutes at 8 km/hr, 5 minutes at 7.2 km/hr, then the 2 or 3 minutes at 7.5km/hr and the last 2 or 3 at 9 km/hr. It was slower and harder than I expected. 

But I got through, and I'm really glad I did because had I quit at 30 minutes, then this would have become just a crappy 30 minute run after a series of much better ones. As it is, it is now my longest non-stop run, my furthest distance, and an example that I can slog through even without the running rush and the zone out time. 

And just on distance. 4.99km. Yes, it's 1.01km further than I've ever run before. But for heaven's sake! Just 1 metre to hit the excellence of 5km! Blergh.

So my calf hurt and was crampy all day yesterday and bit today, and today I feel like my joints have taken a pounding (actually I had that feeling after Wednesday's run too). I still have a small pain in the inner edge of my right calf. Today I just had a quiet walk and could feel my knees grumbling. But I did it and I'm proud. 

That's Eloise Wellings. She won the Zatopek 10km in 32:19:08. That's right; she ran twice as far as I did in just over 2/3 of the time. Shut up.