Busy Busy!

so much for sitting back and taking stock.

First thing this morning I text my old friend from Uni (who doesn't read my blog or do Facebook) to tell her I've reached my WaterAid target and thank her for the HUGE part she's played in this.  She replied almost immediately asking what I need her to do next, and I tell her that with 18 months and £1100 to raise for Barnardo's I'm sure I'll think of something.  By the time I get back from dropping the boys off and going to the supermarket there is an Etsy order from her for eleven cards! Which is so lovely, but I can't help but wish I'd told her how exhausted I am! (Any readers who were thinking of purchasing - please don't postpone I'll cope!).

With a busy day ahead I haven't time to walk the dogs and go for a run, so there's only one thing for it - Sid gets a shorter walk more befitting a dog of his years, and Dougal has no choice but to come on my run with me.  He's always better away from the road, so we set off on the Greenway towards Dewsbury knowing that it's six miles from our house to the end of the cycle path and back.  SchoolfriendofMG750 has commented that now the hard work of raising money is out of the way, running should be the easy bit - with this in mind I start concocting a whole new scale of run in terms of hours spent running 'v' hours spent at Westival, and deduce that even if the marathon takes me six hours it will be less than the horrors of Sunday and at two and a half hours the half marathon is now only half of what I went through on Saturday! Easy peasy then!

Running along I completely 'lost' about a mile with no recollection of it passing - I like it when this happens, but it made me start thinking about reversing the route on the way back and I just wasn't in the mood to run the same path home. So, when we got to the end instead of turning round I found myself heading out along the canal tow path with only a rough idea of where we were going! It was a little disconcerting when the canal veered off and I found myself on the far side of a river without any sign of a bridge but eventually we got to where we needed to be to begin the long ascent home. Over a mile uphill with an elevation rise of around 100 metres - I don't know if this will have any meaning to anyone reading this at all but basically it was a long and steady climb which at around the five mile mark was a bit of a killer. The real killer however was starting again after stopping about three quarters of the way up the hill to get Dougal a drink from a hairdresser's only to discover that he didn't want a drink in the first place! The last mile was however much more pleasurable as it was almost all downhill (which I think is why I went that way in the first place) and clocked up my longest run ever at 7.21 miles and just under two weeks ahead of schedule - yes! Legs and knees were starting to complain but held up nicely, it wasn't until I was in the shower that the pain hit me. The sharp stabbing excruciating pain of hot water reaching raw skin!

Talking to the parkrun run director on Saturday he mentioned that he has various different types of running shoes including marathon ones with extra cushioning, I commented on my novice status owning only one pair.  Little did I know I would cross a threshold this week, not in terms of the suitability of my shoes, but rather that of my bra... although I think I may refrain from sharing this anecdote with him, unless of course you feel like messaging him again sisterofmarathongirl750?!

M - 609
HM - 166
Glasgow - 26
Distance covered              7.2 miles
Total Distance covered  230.1 miles