Safe, sound, and strangely ok...

Last night I was inundated by literally no messages wondering if I'd got home safely after my first stab at running home.

So I'm pleased to report for all those concerned that yes, I am alive.

I would have loved to update you all last night, but I had to go to get DIY supplies, and when I got back I couldn't be bothered to try to fix my interweb connection – it's connecting to router fine, but it can't find the web from there. I've probably buggered up a cable when I moved it during renovations last weekend – will have a stab at fixing it tonight.

In fact I got home strangely earlier than I expected, and it wasn't as demanding as I'd thought it would be.

This might be down to the weeks and weeks of training I've put in, and my body at last getting used to the demands of running, or it could be something to do with the experimenting with the various Lucozade powders yesterday. But, on the whole, for an 11 mile run, it wasn't bad.

That's not to say it was enjoyable.

I'm still picking the thorns out of my leg from having to dive out of the way of an errant Audi A3 whilst running over a bridge.

I forgot my running socks so had to improvise.

The bottle holder I've got developed an annoying habit of loosening itself, so was ditched, meaning I had to carry drink, which I hate.

I also messed up my drinking so that the last four miles were run almost cross-legged as there's a distinct lack of public conveniences in my part of the world. At one point I strongly considered diving behind some bushes in a park, but there were too many houses overlooking, and there's words for people who do that sort of thing near children's play areas - the "defendant" being the one that springs to my mind.

Running at rush hour did mean frequent stops at junctions to avoid a premature death – when did people stop looking for other road users at junctions?!

There was also a slight cock-up with the recovery drink as it turns out I was supposed to use two sachets, and I'd only bought an experimental one.

But on the whole, it went better than can be expected.

So I now know I can make this one of the regular runs as I've got a few mid-week 11-milers coming up.

I'm not sure if I should be happy with this or not as a few weeks ago the idea of running double digits during the week would have filled me with horror and I've done two this week!