It took me a while to go out running again, mainly because I was quite busy at work - the weekend after the race was Easter and I had to go to the National Trust three out of the four days and we had family here on the other day. It was Easter Egg Trail time, which is quite intensive, except for Easter Sunday when it poured with rain and I sat in the Barge Building Shed freezing cold and doing my knitting! We had about 20 visitors all day, and only about 8 kids to do the trail, so it wasn't a lot of fun. We did have one lady, in her late 20s I would think, who had communication difficulties (so she "told" me by writing notes in a little notebook) who came and sat in the Shed to get a bit dry after she'd walked around in the rain for ages completing all the children's trails. We did some badge making and had a cup of tea, and she sat quietly listening to us chattering on for about an hour, and as she left she wrote a note to say what a nice time she had had, she didn't go out much on her own but she was going to tell her carer all about what she had done. Kind of made it all worth while.
I finally got my running shoes back on about 10 days after the Marathon, and did a "quick"jog round the block. I took no technology with me, not even a watch, so I have no idea how far I went or how fast I was running but I was out for about 40 minutes. I really wasn't sure how I felt about running again, given the euphoria of the last time I ran. I didn't know if I'd feel it was all a bit pointless now with nothing to aim for, but actually I really enjoyed myself. I felt very comfortable and happy just pootling around on my own two feet. I guess I like running now...
Since then I've done a couple more short runs, including one off-road run around Wix Hill with Debbie. It was very up and down and quite muddy but really good fun. We were very slow but I managed to keep going up some pretty good hills. I think I need to incorporate more hills, and more off-roading; it is much nicer than roads all the time.
I didn't apply for the 2015 Ballot. I thought about it, although not very hard. Much as I absolutely loved doing it, it was very hard work, and very time-consuming. I also felt very selfish doing it - much as hubby was incredibly supportive (once he realised I wasn't going to go mad and do myself serious harm) and enormously proud of me, it did take over my life, and therefore his too, particularly as the runs got longer and took up more of the weekend, and when I wasn't running I was thinking about it or talking about it. And I also felt like I'd had such a super day and had some fabulous memories so I wanted to keep it special by not doing it again. It would never be the same and I'd never again have that same nervous but excited "not knowing what to expect" feeling; also I now have a time to beat and so I'd have to take it more seriously (not that I took it lightly at all, but for me it was always about so much more than the time it took) and worry about pacing and strategy in order to get a PB - and where's the fun in that? I think for now it's just going to be running for fun and fitness, although I also need to go to the gym more as I haven't been for ages - since I started work really; it's just difficult to fit in! - or decide to give up my membership. I am starting to look at a few smaller (i.e. shorter) events, to give me some motivation. I may do the Marlow 10k with my sister at the beginning of June, and I have found the Bacchus Half Marathon in September at Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking, complete with wine tasting on the way round and hog roast after. What's not to love?!
In the meantime it's family time. We had son no. 2 home for Easter (for some reason their holidays just didn't coincide) which was great. He had a week away in Cornwall with his old school "helping out" with their Junior Surf Trip - at the same time as hubby was away in Oman on business and we got burgled... Not a nice time that (actually just the week before the Marathon so not ideal as I was trying to stay calm and relaxed. They didn't come into the house at all but they did a very thorough job in the garage and cleaned out pretty much all of hubby's power tools. But no-one was hurt, the insurance covered everything very swiftly and efficiently and it's all been replaced. And we have Fort Knox in the garage now.) He went back to Exeter last week, two days before son no. 1 arrived home from Bath. He is here now, along with his lovely girlfriend; we have Dad arriving from Cyprus tomorrow, uncle and cousins from Oz coming on Sunday, and sister and partner from NZ next week... Not all staying at once, thank heavens!
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