Category: Half Marathon

My sofa and half marathons are no friends

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Last Saturday I was running the Coniston 14 half marathon.

The whole week I was quite lazy on my sofa and I found 3 million excuses to not go for a run, not even a little morning stroll to school.

My ankle was still half open and therefor very sore from a previous run and I wanted it to heal-

as you can tell, another lame excuse.

However. The night before the run, I checked the route description. For some reason I thought a road run around a lake would be flat, but the route description told me otherwise. I should have  known since it was in Cumbria.

“…first 5 miles uphill…” Wonderful… Well, how bad could it be? I will be a bit out of breath for the first 30 minutes and then be fine, or so I thought

Pah, yeah that was a nice dream. The reality was different:

When I started to run, I was out of breath. And at some point, I wondered when these 5 miles finally end, as after that it was said, it would be more even. Fair enough it was even, for maybes 2 miles or so.

After that it was constantly up and down, up and down AND when I spotted the 8 mile sign, I got angry as I was very certain, that I already passed said sign!

On I went. The landscape was really beautiful, unfortunately the other runners seem just to run on their own. No one chatted to each other and when I tried to talk to another lady who was running next to me, she just stared straight ahead. “Don’t then”, I thought.

Near the end all of a sudden was another huge mocking sign which said

“Half Marathon Distance”. They just topped 2 more miles . How cheeky is that?!

During this run, I had to

  • walk the hills
  • tie my shoe again
  • walk to drink and eat (didn’t figure out how to do it at the same time, yet)
  • shake my hands out, as they where so swollen (due to a new drink), my fingers looked like sausages
  • burst a huge blood blister after the run

Now all I have to deal with, is a very hurting toe nail, which high likely will fall off. Well that happens, when you wear no proper shoes.

Things I learned:

  • Try new sport drinks before a big event
  • Run at least one long run with your preferred  running shoes
  • Run at least once or twice before a race
  • Never underestimate a road run

Franky

I Am Peeved!!!

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Yesterday I wanted to start my training for a half marathon I want to run coming spring! My intention was to get up at around 6am 6 times a week to go for runs, make all hills without dragging my tongue behind and to extend the miles!

My clothes where already out next to my bed so I can sneak out when the alarm goes off. To prove it here is a picture I have taken earlier:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

But I woke up yesterday still with a sore throat! During the day it got a bit better and I thought “actually I could have went…” So I decided to go for a run this morning despite the fact that I am not feeling too great just to realize this morning after a night of coughing, that it is probably not a good idea because every time I exercise though I am feeling, let’s say unwell, it get’s worse!

So I am a bit in a dilemma. Do I or don’t I go running tomorrow? I hate when I can’t do what I intended to.

Run or not to run, that is here the question…

Guess I will find out tomorrow morning!

And hopefully my mood will improve, as I discovered today that our windows are getting moldy (we live here since august and fair enough it wasn’t cold before and now the cold is seeping through the gaps) + the army has forgotten to pay our rent the past few months. So nice to pay back such a big amount of money before christmass. SIGH. BIG SIGH…

Franky

The pain with donations and dissapointment!

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As I mentioned in a post before, I wanted to do the

“Ben Nevis Winter Walk” and therefore had to raise funds for the “Willow” organization.

https://www.justgiving.com/Nancy-Knowles

So far so good. I posted it here, posted it on Facebook send emails to my children’s schools for support and told my family as well.

The schools mentioned it in their school newsletter, which was really kind of them and also some here shared my link (big thank you!) but, and now it comes:

On my Facebook site it was shared only 3 times of family members! I have around 65 friends (including family) on my friend list which I personally know. BUT no one shared my link nor donated a few pennies to the charity site, not even my family and I must admit, I am a bit disappointed and also feel led down.

My expectation was that they would at least share the link. If someone would ask me for help, I would help!

Also I have to say I feel for the persons who support (successfully) and raise funds for charity events or charities in general as it it really hard work!  Walking from house to house, getting in touch with other people and companies to ask for help and their money is really difficult and exhausting and in my case disappointing and mentally I bow in front of them!

Also I had to cancel my Ben Nevis trip, because my husband has an army function which he has to attend that weekend, which means if I was away, we wouldn’t have a babysitter.

I didn’t want to cancel my trip no matter what, I even phoned my sister and my parents in Germany to ask them to come over but my sister wasn’t in the mood to travel again as she just has been here recently and my parents have an appointment as well…

But they won’t get the better of me! There are some half marathons next year I want to attend. Of course you have to pay a fee to sign up and even if no one ever want to donate for my fees or gears, that is fine with me (I know how tight money is nowadays). There are always ways and I am looking forward to the events.

Tomorrow I will start with daily runs. Usually I run every second day and I can run 6 – 8 miles easily. Well 8 miles when it is flat terrain without Cash in the buggy and 6 with an imaginary oxygen mask when it is hilly.

So no, I won’t hang my head! I didn’t get the expected support, so what?! It could be worse! It will not stop me, I keep on going!

Franky