Long Sunday

Last long Sunday run before next Saturday's race. I was intending to run about 20km around Olm but after a look at the map last night after a few glasses of champagne, I'd forgotten most of the town names that I was supposed to run through this morning.

I set off easily at about 4:40 pace, suffering slightly from lack of sleep and an excess of champagne. As usual, a few kilometres into the run and my head began to clear and I felt a whole lot better. The start of the run was through some forest areas and the shade and the coolness of the air was very pleasant. This ended too shortly and I ended up running some hills (yes even more than I would have asked for) in the sun on a warm morning.

I ran through Nospelt, which I recognised as one of the intended towns en route and found a lovely footpath through some more forest and down into a valley only ot rise steeply out on the other side. My pace slowed to 5:26 per km at this point, and my mind clouded with concern over La Pastourelle and the thought of the 8.5 km uphill section.

The footpath joined a road and headed back to Nospelt and I guessed, correctly, that I should be heading more West and so ran in the direction of Goeblange. This is where I made my first mistake. I'd run 14 km by now and saw a sign for Olm, a mere 3km away. I decided that this wasn't long enough and saw a another sign for Wandhaff. I followed the street down, but it looked too small to be a real road, heading anywhere. I turned back to the main road and continued on to Koerich. Once, I arrived in this village, I realised that the champagne had well and truly worn off and that I didn't recognise the name, or any other villages heading out of the town either, for that matter.

I turned up left as soon as I could here, thinking that I would be heading South and would eventually come upon another village that I recognised, or a sign to Olm or Capellen, next door. No such luck. In fact, I was still heading West in the opposite direction to where I wanted to be.
Steinfort was the next village on my tour and I was tiring now. The heat and the hills were wearing me down. I hit a main road, signposted to Luxembourg and so I followed this, figuring (correctly this time) that I would cross another main road to Capellen in a few kilometres at Windhof (actually known as Wandhaff in Luxembourgish, cause of my initial mistake).

Stopeed at 19km and walked for 50 metres before beginning to run again. Just when I was beginning to despair, I saw the town sign that I recognised and knew that I was only 3km from home.

Finished the run after 24 km and 1:49 or an average of 4:34 over the whole route. Excellent time considering the hills and the heat. Bodes well for next weekend. Knackered.