Long Run - 29km (shopping and sightseeing)

dannewton just finished a 29.46km run, that lasted for 196 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 2240.0 calories.

---

Description from Strava: Well thats another week of work done. And we're already near the end of January, and so once again time seems to be flying!

Its also 4 weeks today that I'll be doing my 7 hour timed race, but I'm trying not to think about that!

But anyway, it is a Saturday, so it's time for the standard 'long run'. I've pushed quite hard this week training-wise (especially with that speedwork session on Wednesday) so today I was aiming for a much easier run. It's still gonna be long obviously, but the effort was meant to be easy, and I wasn't bothered how long it took.

I know I mentioned previously that I was looking to head to Whisby today, but this morning I had a change of mind and really fancied running into town. I also had a few bits to pick up from the shops, so it would be a way of killing two birds with one stone. Having to look round shops turned into a bit of a stop/start affair, as I struggled to find what I need, and there were plenty of queues too.

Anyway, I set off for the run at just after 11:30AM. As I knew I'd be out for a couple of hours at least, I had a packed lunch in my backpack (cheese and marmite sandwiches, mini cheddars and chocolate biscuits). I would munch on these on the way.

As mentioned before, I wasn't bothered about pace, other than making it sure it was easy, so I set my watch to show my heart rate, and checked it periodically to make sure it was under 145bpm

I slowly meandered into town, and my first destination was the retail park on Tritton Road. Here I was looking for some new ties, and so I visited Asda Living...

...but they had no ties. Or rather, they had ties sold in packs with shirts. I already have a million shirts, I just want the ties!

Next door at TK Max was worse. I didn't bother searching, and marched up to the front desk. The lady advised they didn't sell ties at all.

Well, that wasn't a good start!

I carried on running towards town, and passed another retail park.

Ah yes, Sports Direct, I do need some new running tops!

Fortunately this was easily done! 5 minutes of looking, and £16.00 later I had gained 2 new tshirts.

These were stuffed in my backpack (very thin fabric, so fold up very small).

I helped myself to my first sandwich, and headed into the town center, still hunting for some ties. Lincoln high street has changed a lot in the last 5-10 years. This is mostly due to covid problems, and the changing retail landscape (i.e. the move to online shopping).

We used to have a lot of clothes shops in town, but for one thing or another, many have disappeared. Debenhams, Burtons, British Home Stores, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins... the list goes on.

In town now, the choice appears to be Primark (good for some things, but too cheap for others), and Marks and Spencers and Next, both of which are allways expensive.

I checked M&S, they had a choice of 2 ties. A deep Red, of which I already owned a similar one) and a pale Blue, which looked awful.

With relief I discovered that Next not only sold ties, but also had a coule of nice ones. The price was steep, but not bad for Next, and I came away with 2 new ties. The colours haven't appeared well in the photo, one was a nice British Racing Green, and the other was a Golden Yellow with squares in Navy Blue

I did quickly check Primark and was disapointed with ties as expected. They only had black and dark Grey, and only in a really thin version (I guess thats the fashion... but fashion is shit)

They did have these belts which would be useful.

Losing weight is all well and good, but my trousers/jeans keep falling down!

After 20 minutes I had managed to get my shopping done, and it was only a little bit of faffing in the end. By this point I had run about 8km, and needed to carry on further.

I decided it was time to explore some other parts of the City, and look for some new places to run. At the top of town is the 'cultural quarter' which essentially means Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral

I headed along Yarborough Road, which is a gentle but unexpectdly long hill...

I used to live on this road back in my Uni days, I didn't remember the hill being this tough!

There are lots of bits and pieces to see in Lincoln Castle, including the one of the four original versions of the Magna Carta, the Victorian Prison, a walk around the top of the Castle Wall.

All of these cost money though, so I just ran round the grounds a copule of times, as this was free entry!

In the distance you can see the top of the Cathedral

Stepping out of the main entrance to the Castle, you can look across Castle Square, and see the Cathedral on the other side

Say what you like about the relevance of organised religion these days (I'm not a fan), but you can not deny the architecture of some of these building are super impressive, and of the skill required to build this.

Even more impressive when you consider that parts of this building are over 700 years old (Source)

Spot of sightseeing over with... it was time to start making my way home

The run home was mostly uneventful, although as I don't normally run around here, I did make a couple of wrong turnings!

Eventually though, I managed to get my bearings, and find Wragby Road (pictured above), and that meant I was able to take up an oft repeated route towards the bypass. And then it was a simple matter of following along that towards home.

I arrived home just after 3:00pm, and it had been a pleasant run out. Productive with getting the items from town, and I enjoyed exploring a new area too.

It ended up being a little longer and harder than I had originally planned, which means that this evening (and tomorrow) I will be resting and taking it easy.

In fact, I think an early night might be in order too!

---

If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/10640552106

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

This is an automated post by @strava2hive and is currently in BETA.

If you would like to know more about the @strava2hive service, you can checkout our Frequently Asked Questions.