But its raining!

So how do you start writing a blog post…for me it's about having something to write about, quite often during a run a subject heading pops into my head or an interesting question (dependant on your viewpoint) creeps into my brain.  During the run the foundations of my blog take shape, then it gets beaten into submission and we end up with a blog post. 

Why am I  telling you this, well you may have noticed that there was no blog post in October; I was running and even ran my fastest half marathon in quite some time in Bilbao so why no blog?  Well there were a number of things but the biggest was the uncertainty of my previous contract; I won't bore you with the details but there were 3 weeks of uncertainty and a lot of my free-thinking time was taken up by all that noise. 

Anyway we are through it all now, currently looking for my next contract and wondering where I will end up next, which means there is plenty of time to think, run and write....which leads me to the subject line of this actual blog.

Imagine if you can, you are rudely awoken at 4am in the morning with the rain bashing against the window and it sounds like it's settled in for the duration, your training plan says 10 miles and your alarm set for 5:30…joy! You drift off back to broken sleep periodically you wake up and hear the rain, check your watch and start to contemplate your life choices…..

Well that was me last Thursday morning, as my alarm went off at 5:30am I lay there thinking I have to run BUT IT'S RAINING, and so the bargaining started between brain and body;

• Body: why not go later it may stop raining later,
• Brain: quickly checks the weather, there is a yellow weather warning for your area, no it isn't going anyway
• Body: you could go tomorrow  
• Brain ou have made plans to go out with Liz before you head of to Wales for a girls weekend
• Body: you could do 5 now and 5 later 
• Brain: great get wet twice…genius 
• Body: you could not do it 
• Brain: it's on my plan what heresy is this
• Brain:  get up buttercup and put on your big girl pants it is only rain, you won’t melt or shrink! 

Needless to say I did get up and ran 9.50miles  in 1:26 in the end so 95% of my plan was completed, oh and the rain stopped around 1:10 in my run, so I should have gone later!!!

Postscript, its Monday and a very similar conversation happened this morning, this time I did delay my run till around 12:00.  The sky had been clearing from the rain earlier, it was looking windy but there was some sun earlier! First, 4.5 of my 6-mile run was dry and breezy..then it happened a few spots, to begin with, and just before I was into my last mile the heavens opened and I was soaked through the skin....and all I could hear was some faint giggling. 

Well I really enjoyed the majority of that..

Edinburgh has come and gone, all over in the blink of an eye! scary really after 16 weeks of training where every run felt tough, then slowly as the runs got longer they started to feel a bit easier and dare I say a little more enjoyable. Having said that I was really pleased to be done with the 2+ hour runs.

I had set my goals for Edinbrough which were twofold:

a) finish time with 4 at the start

b) still have the desire to put my trainers on and run again

To help me enjoy the run I had created an awesome music playlist, that I was really looking forward to listening too. It was an interesting mix of songs that I love both listening to very loud and singing along to in my car very badly! I'd purposely not listened to music too much in training and my long runs have mainly been listening to podcasts to distract me so listening to my mix was going to be a real treat.

Before my race, my training had really been turning a corner, with dropping around 10kgs and actually enjoying my running, my speed has started to pick up. So many people had started to question my seemingly soft target of a 4 something marathon.  

Did I achieve my two goals?

Goal 1: Finish time was 4:05 ✔

Goal2:  I really enjoyed the first 22 miles my songs where awesome, each one was a joy to listen to not quite singing out aloud but there was a lot of smiles, air guitars, air drumming and plenty of dancing hands. 

The weather had perked up which was brilliant as conditions at the start was awful, downpours and heavy drizzle then as the start got underway the rain dried up and it stayed dry for the entire run (despite the advanced weather warning!!) and finally the crowds where brilliant out in there droves clapping, cheering and telling everyone how brilliant they were.

But a marathon is 26.2 miles so what about the last bit….. last 4.5(!) miles were tough, it felt like I'd been handed a piano and to run into a headwind all the way to the finish!! 

There were a couple of walking breaks but I soon started running again. It helped to remind me that although this was tough, this was nothing compared with what Dad had to go through during his treatment.  When his last few rounds of radiotherapy were well and truly kicking his arse (excuse the Bowel Cancer pun), he continued to get himself to the hospital have his treatment because he knew that was what he needed to do to beat cancer.  

I also remembered telling him that his last few treatments were like the last 4 miles of the marathon, tough but you know you need to carry on because you don’t want to waste the first 22 miles…….

Eventually, I rounded the corner and the finish was in sight, halfway down the white runway to the finish I threw my hands in the air and even tried to smile a little!

I'd finished and yes I do want to run again, but just not marathons!