Maimed

By a dog lead!

It has been a day of mixed emotions. The boys have gone to their cousins for a few days and for whilst it's lovely for Al and I to have some time on our own, I miss them.

After dropping them off at the station we took the dogs for a walk at Temple Newsam in Leeds a place full of wonderful memories for us as it's where we got married. It's ages since we've been and was good to be back. What I could have done without however was the complete lack of co-ordination between Al and I when he let Sid off the lead, I didn't lock the extendable lead, he let go, the lead recoiled and the metal clip found my ankle bone with force - ouch! It's bruised and sore and I've given myself a guilt free evening off exercising tonight - but I think I'll live (and hopefully run again on Saturday!).

There is excitement on our return home. After sending her my 'Twitter handle' yesterday (had to ask Al what this was!) the lovely lady I was speaking to at WaterAid has tweeted about me including a link to my Etsy shop and Brighton Half Marathon have re-tweeted it (and apparently they have just short of five thousand followers!)  This is great news - surely now I'll get a 'proper' sale! Rush onto my Etsy page to see how many views I've had since I last looked this morning  - ten. C's not here to work out the conversion rate for me (Got an A in Additional Maths today - congratulations C! But thankfully Al's here to check my maths!) 0.2 percent! This is not good and proving far harder than I EVER thought it would be.

Not to be deterred however I have requested further information on a stall that's available for someone selling cup cakes at a local event in September (thanks SC) maybe I'll fair better there - keep your fingers crossed (got to get the pitch first though!).

Already feeling like I've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster today, I find out at tea time that I am not The Face of Vitality Oxford Half Marathon (although sitting with my feet up on the settee typing this and having just looked up a definition of 'vitality' to find it described as 'energy and strength' I'm not sure I am all that surprised!) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed but by the same token it was always a long shot.

The email telling me I'd been unsuccessful came with the offer of free entry into the race because they want "to help me achieve my goal". Churning this over I had a quick look at the parkrun newsletter and discover that they have made this offer to all applicants and I think perhaps I've come to the end of the road with Oxford. I had to apply to see where it took me, but running a half marathon in October was never really my goal, my goal is Brighton in the company of sisterofmarathongirl750 and Halfmarathongirl, and training with them both in spirit and in person over the winter not embarking on a intensive eight week training plan starting now - especially with my poorly ankle!

M - 635
HM - 191
Total Distance covered  184 miles
Exercises Exempt Day!