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Only Losers Take The Bus!

The title of this week's blog post is a rather catchy little song by The Fatima Mansions - I'd never heard of them or the song but MrT added it to my running tracks playlist earlier this week - I think he was hoping it would encourage me when I heard it. However, when it popped up on my playlist today whilst I was about half way up the very steep hill that is Anchor Road (going from Longton to Adderley Green), I'm not sure whether I found it inspirational or just annoying! However, it did bring a smile to my face as I kept pushing myself to keep going to the top of the hill - no bus for me today on Anchor Road!

First Potteries Route #2 goes between Longton and Adderley Green up Anchor Road!

For those of you who run in and around Stoke-on-Trent, Anchor Road will be familiar to you. You've probably run up it many times, especially if you've completed in the Potters 'Arf. For those who've never experienced the joys, just think of a road near to you that you would really hate to run up, a hilly road, and then run up it twice. It even has a pub half way up called 'The Half Way House' just to let you know that you're half way up I suppose.

I've been running in and around Stoke for almost a year now and I've heard people talk about Anchor Road and the running challenge it presents. Most routes with a hill come with a proviso as to whether they're as challenging as Anchor Road or not. But I've never actually run up Anchor Road - its a little bit far from home to be on my regular running route.

As I'm increasing the length of my runs, however, Anchor Road is now within running distance. So for my long run this week, I worked out a route that took in Anchor Road but was then followed by a long gradual descent so I could recover and hopefully complete the 7.5miles I was aiming for.

Today I took on that challenge of Anchor Road and survived. I'm made it from top to bottom without stopping, running all the way up. And I was really pleased with myself - mission accomplished. I'm glad it came at about mile 3 in my run rather than mile 7, as I'm not sure I would have made it up the hill without stopping by that point. But I did complete my run and achieved my distance target for this week's long run. And I might just take on Anchor Road again soon - just to see if it gets any easier.

Three weeks into half marathon training and its going well so far. I didn't take the bus, not even up Anchor Road!

LizT
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