Kingston 16 Mile Breakfast Run

Never quite sure why this is called the 'Breakfast Run', the only similarity is that it takes place in the morning, other than that, it is always a long, often painful, drawn out process of simply waiting to blow up with a number of miles still on the clock. Although this is only the second time I have done this run, I don't have many fond memories of anything beyond about the 10 mile mark on the last attempt.

So, for this year's race, I decided to see if I could lower the point at which I would blow up by going out on the TT bike the day before and doing a long ride. The plan was to just ride at a steady 30kph and try and get 130-150k's on the clock. The over-excitement of being back on the TT bike however saw me going closer to 35kph for the 140k - perhaps not the best preparation, but it did not feel like I was pushing that hard. My legs did feel a little tired at the end though.

So, at the start of the Breakfast Run, I just thought that I would see how things went, maybe start off with what felt comfortable and see how things went. I had set the Garmin to run about a 1:46, but in all honesty, I had no idea how I would run. At about 3 miles I took a look at the Garmin and I could see that I was up on the virtual partner by a bit, the problem was, the legs had not felt amazing really. I decided to keep drudging along, more out of interest to see how long I could keep the pace up.

I went through half way in a respectable time, but I only had one objective in my mind now. I figured I would just see if I could run a decent half marathon and then maybe take it easy for the last 3 miles. I was obviously just trying to work out how early I could stop the pain. In the end I went through the half in about 1:22 which was good for me as this was quicker than my time at Wokingham a few weeks back. I walked the drinks station after this, had some lucozade and another slimy ride shot that had been festering in my shorts pocket. I got running again and didn't feel too bad. Someone past me at this stage who I had run with for a couple of miles on lap 1. I sat in behind him for the next mile and then figured with only 2 to go, I may as well see if I can keep the pace up. Don't get me wrong, the last mile did hurt...the last photo below is bit of a giveaway.

Still, 1:43:01 is 2:35 quicker than my last attempt and not a bad run for me. Just under 4min/km for the whole race.