Yorkshire Marathon Training: Week 1 – Sunday

Nuclear power isn’t something I give a lot of thought to if I am honest. But, being on a short holiday in the west of the Lake District you can’t really ignore it – such is the dominance of the Sellafield nuclear power station. I didn’t realise my run would take me so close.

I skipped running on Friday and Saturday. Friday was spent travelling to the camp sire in Holmrook and on Saturday we spent the day at South Lakes Safari Zoo.

It rained through the night into Sunday morning and I woke a few times to the sound of rain on the canvas of our trailer tent. When my alarm went off at 7 am I debated whether I should bother or not. It was still raining and I’d forgotten my rain jacket.

As the rain seemed to stop I decided to go for it.

We were near to the sea and the English Coastal Path so I decided to run along that for a while. My OS Maps app came in handy for choosing a route. A route that took me past a “storage facility” according to the map.

It turned out, seeing the “nuclear licensed site” signs on the 12-foot razor-wire fence that this storage facility might be housing something a little bit dangerous!

I soon came to the rocky beach and the coastal path – I headed northwards towards Seascale.

The path was OK but did get a little tricky in the bracken before it then moved onto the beach itself. Running on sand is energy-sapping and I was pleased when the route moved back to firmer ground.

Once at Seascale, the path runs parallel to the railway line and I followed this until Sellafield nuclear power station was well in view ahead of me. I then crossed the railway (at a proper crossing) and then headed back down the Seascale on a path that runs parallel to the railway line on the other side (which is also on a gold course).

Once back in Seascale I ran through the town (village?) and on to farm tracks a little more inland. This brought me nicely back to the campsite and I’d run a steady 7 miles.

I didn’t push hard on this run at all. My plan called for 15 miles but given that we were on holiday and had a day out ahead it really wasn’t fair on my family for me to be tired all day.

So, at the end of my first week of official marathon training, I hit 26.54 miles. In reality, it should have been 40-ish miles in total but circumstances being such I am happy with that.

On to week 2…


Here’s a great video about the Whitehaven to Silecroft section of the English Coast Path that I was running along.


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