Thursday 23 April 2015

Short and sweet...



Number of full night's sleep since August 31st 2014 - About 3...zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz.

Number of tantrums since August 31st 2014 - (About 40 for me. Tom, he's working too hard to have time for tantrums. Rosie on the other hand... about 400. Aston, bless him, none).

Number of times I've changed my mind about Comrades - About 16...thousand.

Number of negative thoughts - too many to count.

Number of positive thoughts - growing thankfully and that's down to good mates and a chat with Ros Moore (who ran Comrades last year) thanks Ros.

Longest run - 26.2 miles on Sunday at Manchester Marathon (last minute entry) 3:53:18

Corners turned - One, and a massive one. After really enjoying Manchester on Sunday and being over the moon to have gone under four hours, not broken my legs and got the qualifying marathon in the bag to make sure I can actually do Comrades, I'm even more pleased to have followed Sundays 26.2 miles up with a 6 miler (pushing Aston in the running buggy) on Monday. A 6 miler on my own on Tuesday. A rest day yesterday and 20.4 miles today. Get in!!!

Comrades I'm coming to get you and I'm even (dare I say it) starting to look forward to it.

Who'd have thought lol!

Lastly... Sending mahoosive positive vibes to everyone running VLM on Sunday, especially you Hannah...go get the time you deserve.

H x








Sunday 12 April 2015

And then there was one...

Errrrrr... I'm really not quite sure how this has happened!

Let me quickly re-cap for you.

When TOM & his DAD planned to run Comrades in the year of 2015, I was NEVER in the picture for anything other than spectating. I was pregnant with Aston and knew by the time May 31st 2015 came around he would still only be 8 mths old.  Tom tried his hardest to persuade me and I resisted... actually I didn't resist, that's a bare faced lie, I definitely didn't want to do it thank you very much.

Fast forward to Aston being born and at approximately 4 weeks old Tom spoke to me in his persuasive tones about having a goal and it being fun and how we could all run together. Imagine Little Britain's Kenny Craig...


... and being in a fog of hormonal craziness, sleep deprivation and general post pregnancy yukdom I looked into his eyes, looked into his eyes, the eyes, the eyes, don't look around the eyes, he clicked his fingers and I was under... ["Oooooo Comrades would be such a great thing for you to do with me and my Dad"] 3, 2, 1, you're back in the room.

And there I was signing up for the craziest, most untimely event that I could have possibly popped into my calendar like I was signing up for a local free, weekly timed (do-able) 5km around a park somewhere. BUT, I was signing up with TOM and his DAD and also with our great mate SAM. All four of us skipping up the hills on our way to Pietermaritzburg from Durban, oh what fun those 56 miles would be.

Then Sam got injured. Then Brian (Tom's Dad) got injured. Then I had a melt down about how ridiculous this all was. Then Tom had a melt down about how ridiculous this all was. Then we both went out on a long run together to decide once and for all how ridiculous it all was and I confused most people with our clear as mud decision (which for the record was we were going to do it) and then finally one of us saw sense and said, "...no, this isn't for me". And I said, "do you mind if I still do it?"

And so here I am wondering WTF is going on, I've been hoodwinked into running 56 miles on my own lol! It's definitely the right decision by Tom not to do it. Work is crazy, crazy, crazy and time is precious when he's home. I'm happy he feels relieved that he's made the right decision. So that leaves little me and the matter of 56 hot, hilly miles. Jeefus! I don't know if my runs are long enough to get me round 56 miles. For my weekly long runs I've been running no shorter than 20 miles for a good few weeks now. I ran 22 miles last week, 20 miles this morning and in a couple of weeks I'm going to run the Yorkshire Three Peaks with my mate Hannah which should give me time on my feet and some good hill training. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!

So there you have it. In seven weeks time that'll be me, on me tod, running past Tom and his Pa while they eat ice-cream and cheer me on with knotted hankies on their heads. This wasn't quite how I saw this adventure panning out lol!

I looked into his eyes for too long I reckon ;)

H x