Pause

For thought...

On Friday evening I learnt that there had been a fire at the home of my friend's parents and they had been unable to save her brother from the fire.

The horror of this has engulfed me, and for the second time since starting my blog I have been completely floored by the cruel blows life has dealt to my friends.  In the first instance, my friend was fortunate, her tumour turned out to be benign, in this instance there is no happy ending. The immeasurable sadness and horrific nature of his death will never leave them.

There is no explanation as to why such things happen, but this time rather than be struck with an overwhelming feeling of how futile life is (or maybe just mine in particular) the only thoughts that have come to me have been to get out there and make the most of the life we've got, for as long as we've got it. In the wake of such tragedy it is all we can do.

Tomorrow marks the start of the next twelve week training plan that will take HMG and me to the Liverpool Half Marathon. I am both excited and apprehensive at the prospect! I don't think my injury issues are fully behind me, but they are on the mend, and whilst I am hopeful that my continued attendance at the gym will help with this, I am a bit worried that it's not going to go quite the way I want it to.

Perhaps what I should have learnt from Brighton is that it doesn't have to.

Twelve weeks will also see me having made my application to Barnardo's and hopefully I will be a step nearer realising my London Marathon dream.

I don't want to make that application without my long overlooked Etsy shop back up and running, which again both excites and makes me slightly anxious at the prospect of being so busy!

I've had a good week.  Definitely helped being more focused and simplifying what I was trying to achieve.  I need to build on this and factor in the additions to my week in a more structured way so as not to overwhelm me, nor fragment my time to an extent that nothing gets done.

This is my life and whether I understand what it's all about or not, it is the only one I've got, time to get living and make the most of it.  With the unquantifiable support from Al and my sis, the love of my children, support of my running partner HMG, extended parkrun family, and blog readers not forgetting my own determination I CAN do this!

I don't know how to help my friend, I live too far away to be of any practical help. So in the absence of anything better I am going to take up the challenge of the next twelve weeks in respect of the challenges facing her family on an hourly basis. If they can find a way through and survive this, then I can bloody well cross that finish line in Liverpool on my feet, having run the whole way, with my marathon place secured for London 2016, some beautiful bags for sale on Etsy and those sodding suitcases that I seem to find it so hard to part with no longer in the chuffing airing cupboard!

M - 415

Liverpool Half - 84

Glasgow Half - 196
Total Distance covered   509.4 miles