The photo above shows the Halley Research Station and part of the surrounding site that for the last 10 weeks I have been running around. The perimeter of the site is marked out with a mix of flags and drums and its length is 3.1 miles or 5km. On Friday night I successfully managed to complete 6 laps which equals 18.6 miles. It was possibly the hardest thing I have ever done and at the moment I have a pain bellow my right knee, an ache on my ankle, my hips hurt as do my shoulders. I also suspect I have something similar to tennis elbow ...but I feel great.
Here is in summary how the run went lap by lap: Lap 1 : 3.1 miles: Running a steady 10min mile. Avg heart rate 140bpm. My mind was racing with a million thoughts...mostly with regards to an internet messaging service for people working away in remote locations. Like a super form of posterous but in reverse using email as its driving force for quick responses to messages collated from Social networks using text, audio, pictures and video for the responses. (Possibly talk about this in a future audio post). Lap 2 : 6.2 miles: Still Running a steady 10min mile.Avg heart rate 145bpm. Mind still racing but now it was more with regards to the task at hand. Came up with a running hack where I played finger tapping sequences with my hands to take my mind of the monotony. (Possibly show this in a future video post) Lap 3 : 9.3 miles : Slowing down a bit as heart rate starts to rise to 150bpm. 11min mile pace. Still messing with finger tapping but starting to loose track of what lap I am on start to become convinced that I am on lap 4. Lap 4 :12.4 miles: Heart rate fluctuating between 150 and 155 trying hard to keep it down still running at around 11min mile. Starting to feel tired and dehydrated. Lap 5: 15.5 miles . Heart rate at 155bpm slowing down to around 15 min miles. Every rock and roll seems to hurt all over. Ground feels very variable. The slower pace means most of my weight is now acting downwards causing my feet to punch through the snow. Very hard lap drank all of my remaining fluid. Lap 6: 18.6 miles. Heart rate 160bpm. Pace still at around 15 min miles possibly even slower. Struggling feeling slightly dizzy starting to panic wondering if anyone would be out this way if I passed out, wished I had brought more fluids. Finger tapping hack had stopped working. Somehow managed to finnish. Total time: 3hours 21mins. Lesson learnt: Eat lunch on the day of my long run. Take twice as much fluids out with me than I think I need. Take a radio just in case I do get into difficulty and tell several people what I plan to do just in case I dont manage to make the radio call, as hypothermia can kick in quick (15 mins) in a dehydrated cold person. Plan to do a bit of an audio update later this week as part of my usual weekly round ups :-)