20 Miles Done

For my Sunday entertainment today I ran 20 miles with three of the Sweaty Betties, who are training for a spring marathon: Jo, Pia and Marie.  The aim was to run at a conversational pace for most of the run and to then do about 4 miles towards the end at target marathon pace.  Sticking to a conversational pace that suited everyone meant running at about 9 minutes per mile.  I thought it would also be fun if I tried to get a photo of every church on the route, as it happens there weren't that many.

Our route was a loop that headed east of Cambridge towards the villages of Stow cum Quy and Bottisham.  Then heading north-east through Swaffham Bulbeck and Swaffham Prior.  From Swaffham Prior we headed north-west towards the river Cam, which we followed south-westwards all the way back to Cambridge.

The first church to be reached on our run is St Mary's in the village of Stow cum Quy at about 3.5 miles.  The church dates back to the 12th century, when the village of Quye was a separate village from Stowe.  It is a fairly ordinary village church to look at.

We didn't get to see the church in the village of Bottisham as it would have meant a detour off of our route.  However, another 3.5 miles down the road we reached the church of St Mary the Virgin in the village of Swaffham Bulbeck.  This church dates from the 13th century and was added to up to the 15th century.

The church of St Mary the Virgin in Swaffham Bulbeck

Just over a mile down the road we reached the village of Swaffham Prior, which is unusual for having two churches right next to each other.  The church of St Mary is now used as the parish church.  In 1878 an order was issued for the demolition of the church of St Cyriac and St Julitta, but the order was never carried out.  It now serves as a hall for exhibitions and other functions.  And, no, the church isn't really leaning, that's just photographic distortion.

The twin Churches of St Mary's and St Cyriac & St Julitta in Swaffham Prior

We then had many miles to run before we'd see our next church.  I had also planned to try out a TORQ energy gel and bar, along with their energy drink.  I mixed up a 500ml bottle of the lemon and lime energy drink, which I then drank in about four stages.  Taste wise it was pretty good, not overly sweet or sticky.  I'd happily use it again.

At about the half way point of our run I tried the sundried banana TORQ energy bar.  After posing for the above photo I then continued to run at a slow pace whilst eating the remainder of the bar.  I found it quite easy to chew whilst on the run, but this is something that I have got used to over the last couple of years.  It also tasted pretty good, but I don't see why it had to be called sundried banana, I'm sure plain old banana would do.

The halfway point of the run is on a very quiet country road with hardly any traffic.  We could all spread out along the road and have a good chat whilst we continued on our way.  

We had been running on tarmac all the way up to the 11 mile point.  The next 4 miles would then be on wet muddy tracks.  I managed to get a group photo of the team just before we set off on the muddy stretch of the run.

The marathon team: Jo, Pia, Marie and me.

When we reached the river Cam I thought it would be a good time to try a TORQ energy gel.  I'd opted to take rhubarb and custard.  As I squeezed the contents into my mouth I was pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted.  I'm not a fan of energy gels but I can honestly say that this was the nicest I've ever had.  I'd be very happy to recommend this particular flavour to running friends.  It didn't taste overly sweet and didn't make my mouth feel claggy, which a lot of other gels do.  TORQ recommend you drink water with the gel, but I didn't particularly feel that I had to in order to rinse my mouth of goo.  I can also confirm that it did taste like rhubarb and custard.  I am now looking forward to trying the rest of the range.

For anyone interested in the ingredients, here they are: maltodextrin (43%), water, fructose (21%), electrolytes (sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium lactate, magnesium carbonate), citric acid, natural rhubarb flavour, natural vanilla flavour, preservative (potassium sorbate).  I had to dig the wrapper out of the bin in order to produce this list of ingredients.  Don't throw your wrappers away in the street or countryside, people!  It annoys me when I see runners do this in races.

A very yummy rhubarb and custard energy gel.

Because the ground was so wet, the next stretch proved to be quite a slog.  Our feet kept slipping in our road shoes.  We were running on top of the flood defensive bank alongside the Cam, and under an ever threatening sky.  Just before I took the following photo we had all said how warm and sunny it was.  The good weather didn't last long.

When we reached Waterbeach I told the girls that we were to run the next 4 miles at our target marathon pace.  This was quite difficult to judge as we were running into a fairly strong head wind by this point.  On the last two miles into Cambridge we hit a lot of traffic.  There was a rowing event taking place so lots of marshals and support crew were out on their bikes on the tow path, many of whom seemed oblivious to other footpath users.  I reached the end of the path first, closely followed by Pia, then Jo and finally Marie.  All of us found the target pace training quite hard.

Boats racing on the Cam

We then had just over a mile to get back to the start, with one final church to photograph.  The church is known as the Leper Chapel and was once part of a leper hospital on the outskirts of Cambridge, built around 1125.  I believe some church services are still held at the chapel, and it is also used by local theatre groups, and in particular by the In Situ company for performances of Shakespeare.  I have seen them perform Macbeth in the Chapel, which proved to be very atmospheric and also a suitably disturbing experience.

So there you go, a description of a run, an introduction to some churches and a review of TORQ energy products all in one blog.  And I got to use Wikipedia quite a bit.