8 miles - and no chainsaw wielding rappers in sight

Well we did it! Me & Hubby decided to do 7-8 miles yesterday as our next step up from the 10k (6.2miles). So along with his running buddy who is trying to get fit before travelling round Australia for 3 months and my running buddy who is also doing the Great North Run we clocked 4miles in the car from the Stadium of Light to the Souter Lighthouse and parked up in the nearest carpark ready to go. We ran from the Whitburn Lodge car park along to the Wearmouth Bridge (well the traffic lights at the bottom of it anyway).

The first part was fine, we even had a bit of a laugh running past the speed detector to see how fast we were going. Me & Michelle managed 6mph whereas the boys put a proper sprint on and got 8mph. Show offs. Me & Michelle stopped after about 10mins to have a good stretch and the boys really got away from us. We trailed them all the way along the coast practically upto Latimers where David dropped back a bit. We closed the gap on Gary leading alond the seafront at Seaburn and heading uphill towards Roker. However being girls we had a call of nature and had to dissapear into the public toilets next to the RNLI and the Roker cafe bungalow. We didn't think we'd have lost that much ground until we rounded the corner on our way past the harbour view and saw a little little black figure in the distance heading up towards St Mary's. We were both astounded how long it takes girls to pee!!! He lapped us just as we were passing St Mary's about 400m from the turn around point (the traffic lights at the bridge). On our return lap we passed hubby at practically the same point. He looked very determined and was jogging along at a steady pace. Although not exactly full of  beans I chirped up that we were half way and I wasn't flagging just yet. To be honest I was quite pleased with myself for not stopping (other than the toilet break). I did have to stop about what must have been the 5 or 6mile mark as I started to get pins & needles & then a numb foot so I loosened the laces on my trainers and the blood flow was restored - ah my lovely toes, welcome back. The return portion along the seafront was gently sloping back down hill so it went by quite quick and we were jogging along chatting and being distracted by how pretty the beach looked. Then we hit the row of restaurants on the seafront and the smells of garlic bread and other goodies were wafting towards us and driving us insane. Right at that point we hit the very long and gently sloping hill back to where we had left the car. As we passed morrisons supermarket  and a park on the way into Whitburn we decided it couldn't possibly be more than another mile. A steeper incline hit around the village centre near all the shops and I recognised a dentists surgery from the first part of the jog down and announced we had 2 more fields of horses and a housed area and we'd be finished. At this point my legs really struggled with the hill and it was like running though treacle. Michelle carried on ahead not daring to slow down her pace. As hubby would later put it, we could smell the familiar smell of horse poo and knew it couldn't be much further. I was really flagging and feeling faint and truly shattered and my knee was starting to ache, although on a positive note my teeny tiny compression shorts were managing to keep my hip from going nuts or giving up on me. The last dregs of my water I dripped down my neck and I was begging for the finish. I still saw michelle running on ahead of me and as I rounded the last corner she'd gone. I knew that meant either she'd sprint finished way past me out of view or the finish was within sight. I spotted a pub but couldn't remember the name of the one we'd parked at and was hoping praying as I caught a glimpse of my luminous yellow t-shirt in the relection of the pub window that this would be the one. I recognised the carpark and in the corner was the car with a waving gary and a pacing michelle.

As I slowed to a walk my knees went numb and I couldnt feel my legs to bend them properly, I felt like I was walking on stilts. We all paced and stretched and stomped around the car park to cool down and as not to seize up completely. I had just cooled down enough to put on my fleecy jacket along with Michelle in her joggy bottoms and towel (no jumper) and Gary wearing hubby's oversized blue superman hoodie, as we saw him trundle into the carpark. We compared satnav jogging gadgets (3 between the 4 of us) we had various distances from 8.2 to 8.8miles and Gary's time came in at 1.27, Michelle at 1.29 me estimated 3 or 4 mins after that then hubby at 1.40something. So all in all very impressive. Hubby said he had to walk a portion of the last 3miles and said he was completely exhausted and had nothing left. As shattered as he was I tried to get him to do some stretching cos I knew if he didn't he'd seize up and suffer for it later. He just kept saying he was running on empty and had nothing left. After a little few stretches and a bit of pacing he got in the car and I drove as my legs were starting to ease a bit. We all chatted about how hard it was but were quite chuffed with our bit selves for doing it. 9 miles next week I think were going to try, and I'm not working this Sat so I must have a little 5k run on the weekend to keep my training up.

Im sore this morning but not bad, took some ibuprofen this morning just to ease the aching and according to the SatNav gadget we burned 1012calories, so after talking about biscuits for most of the run....i've managed to eat 8 out of the 12 bourbons in the packet I tret myself to on my way into work. nom nom nom

Here's a map of the route....it looks really far and impressive on a map!