Miranda’s Virtual Ultra
Miranda Maloney
I decided last year that I wanted to complete an Ultra marathon before I turned 50.
Race to the Tower seemed the ideal one as it finished not far from my home and it meant friends and family could come and support.
Although 54.2 miles seemed a tad daunting and to make sure I didn’t bail, I chose a local charity to raise money for. Cyclists Fighting Cancer.
Obviously COVID had other plans and RTTT has been postponed until next year. However, as I’d raised a fair amount of money by this point, I felt I needed to complete the distance anyway.
So on Friday 4th June, I got up early and ran 3miles by myself until my friend was able to join me for the next 5. She peeled off and I finished 13.1 miles by 9.30am.
Saturday was another early start and 5.2 miles was done by 8am.
I threw changes of clothes, socks, trainers and lots of food and water into the car and drove down to the club car park.
Amazing club runners, Louise, Becks, Sandie and Jan all joined me at 9am along with some other running friends and we did a steady 5 miles. Laps of the rec are very boring!
At 12pm, another Club runner, Lisa met me and we did a few more laps to complete 4miles. I had trotted 2 miles in between time.
3pm was tough as I had no one to run with and I was feeling hungry but sick, tired and a bit emotional. But 6 miles was churned out.
Which meant by the time Jan, Sandie and lovely Kate came at 6pm, we only had 4 miles to do to reach 26.2! I was so grateful to them coming to finish the day with me.
I swiftly put my swim togs on and had a dip in the river. It was bliss!
Sunday, Sandie and I set off to do the last 13.1 miles. It was very slow as my legs were aching. Then the rain came. We met another friend and we even managed to throw in Trinity Mead hill, just for fun!
Anyway. By midday, I had completed 54.2 miles over 3 days rather than the 18-20hrs I had planned. I’ll save that for next year.
Huge thank you to everyone who came to run with me. With more training and definitely learning how to eat whilst running, I’ll be all set for RTTT 2022”
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