Marlena’s and my Road Trip to Lake Como and Milan (you can read all about it here) really opened our eyes to the concept of a full on adventure incorporating travel, running in spectacular surroundings, meeting new people and exploring new places. We coined a phrase for it – #urbantrailblazer and decided to develop the idea further.
So a half marathon through the centre of Reading (including some of the less salubrious bits) wasn’t quite what I had in mind as I parked my car ready to start a solo 16 mile training run along the Thames with a view to trying to maintain that elusive sub 4 hour marathon pace. However a smiling face at the door informed me that I would be running a half marathon through Reading and had I remembered the camera! A life less ordinary – that’s for sure.
But I’ve got to say we had a blast! It’s amazing what you see when you run compared to driving and it was great to see so many other runners about although it was still quite early in the morning. We both love running on the trails – you can see that from our recent runs in France, Germany, Holland and Italy, but there is something rather ‘edgy’ about running through a city and its quite and experience dodging traffic, people, dogs and other obstacles!
Other bonuses too – we met some friends running and we were able to stop for an emergency pit stop in our favourite Cafe – Pret, Reading (well this was a self-supported half). Other than running through Prospect Park, we purposely stuck to the streets and were really pleased to have “run” our home town.
Yep – really like this #urbantrailblazer concept – maybe next one a bit further afield …. Austria sounds good!
We’ve posted a video of our experience on YouTube and of course you can follow our adventures on Twitter @aquamarato and if you want to look the business, head over to our shop here.