Famine pots & a sweaty undercarriage



Bet your glad I went with this image!

Run two of the Donegal Marathon training regime, today was to be a long run and similarly the longest run my new running buddy had ever run.
Up nice and early we had breakfast and prepared our water supplies and energy sweets then set off down the lane from the house.
We had been advised that the route around the lake was about 10-11miles which was sufficient for me for my long run although I was concerned that it may be a big jump for my friend whom had previously only done a maximum of 5 miles in a training run. Sensible head on we decided that 4 miles out and back might be a better starting point as it gave the option of a drop out or continuing. From about 3 miles in my friend (male) started to complain, but knowing that I am a lady he dedicated enquired about what he should do about his sweaty undercarriage - this is not a problem from which I suffer so if any of my male readers have advice on this please feel free to post your tips on avoiding Betty Swallocks.
5 miles in we were going well and at a steady pace so we decided to keep going as we could always walk the remainder of the circuit should we need to stop. We approached the 'Famine Pot' which we had spotted on a drive the previous day and speculated about what food we would like to eat right then... sadly the famine put is not a food version of Mary Poppins bag so we had to stick with water and lucozade tablets.
Onwards we went up and down the hilly circuit, we passed a garden with 6 footballs scattered around, it seemed a lot but who am I to judge, more dogs yapped and barked as we made our way around. just before we hit a long downhill our other friend caught up with us on his cycle around the lake and was suitably impressed with our progress and pace, we chatted awhile before he lets the downhill stretch lengthen his lead on us.
We reached the lane back to the house and we were only at about 9.4 miles, this could not be, we were so close to 10 there was no way we could stop, we forced our legs to keep moving past the lane and keep going so that we could take the run up to a nice round 10 miles.