A night in Oxford and a 5 mile pace run

Friday was my rest day, well, rest from running- lots of walking though. I had to get to Oxford for a boat club committee meeting, and so, I returned to my alma mata.

I had planned to get up extra early to do my run before free breakfast, but it turned out I needed my usual lie in until about 9am and got out running at about 9:30. It was a crisp winters morning and it took me almost a mile to warm up. I set my garmin when it had signal and only speeded up once I was warm. The cold air constricted my airways, so at the end of the first mile, I stopped to take a puff of my inhaler.

If I'm honest, I was dreading this run. I wasn't sure if I was properly fuelled, or if I could maintain the pace for the requisite 5 miles. During mile one I was cheered on by an old guy in Christ Church meadow- I assumed he's a hobo, even made me laugh as he said "I see you're still on the bottle" referring to my sports drink I assume. I left Christ church meadow via Rose lane, and headed east, hoping to stumble upon Donnington bridge so I could do a loop. I passed the iffley road sports ground, famous for sir roger bannister's 4 minute mile. And the Liddell building, where I lived during my final year at Oxford.

Somewhere just before 2.5 miles I came across Donnington Bridge road. Hurrah! I crossed the bridge, looked over the river for rowers and came down the south side to return along the tow path. I was happy to reliably overtake other runners along the way, toward the end of the tow path I hit mile 4- I knewi'd have to dig deep as this was psychologically the most difficult mile. Unfortunately, my pace was affected by having to follow pedestrians and go through a kissing gate to get back to Christ Church meadow. Then, I had to puddle jump. I decided to cross the river to boat house island and to the best boathouse- Christ Church boat house: got a pic of the river and some geese :-)

The last stretch was back around the meadows, with another cheer from the hobo "looking good miss". I felt like an Olympian... Well, only for a second!

And my mile splits were:

Mile 1:9:39
Mile 2: 8:50
Mile 3: 8:45
Mile 4: 9:19
Mile 5: 8:45

So mile 1 and 4 were slower than the rest, due to warm ups and kissing gates, but I think this run suggests I can happily aim for a 1:55 in the Colchester Half Marathon in March.

8 miles tomorrow...