Today was very very hard. It was my first marathon after my Running For Hannah Challenge of 6 ultra marathons. I would have thought that that would have been quite good training, but what do I know. After 125 marathons and ultras, I still don't get it.
I haven't been feeling very good for a couple of weeks, a bit low and all, so maybe that was it. I started off running alright, so that cheered me up a bit. But then my foot started to hurt, then most of the rest of my body after that, and quite quickly my mind jacked it in as well. I don't mind saying I had some tears on the way round (when no one was looking), but then this was Phoenix, and loads of my friends were there, so it was never long before a friendly face, so I'd feel better again for a while. Although four laps of the Thames path, to Hampton Court and back is flat like a pancake, emotionally it felt like a very hilly marathon today.
But, whatever. My mind can do one, if it thinks it's going to dictate my day, and although it was tough, I finished in 4:15, so up yours, mind. Although for the effort it took, I kind of feel I should have been keeping up with Mo Farah (although he wasn't here today), but there you go.
My running family is awesome - thank you, you lovely lot! Haven't been to Phoenix for ages, and it was great to see everyone. I love Phoenix. So many hugs and smiles and chats today. Having good friends is a very lucky thing to have. And Rik has got a new freezer for the aid station, so there were ice lollies on the way round. And I saw a chicken on a bike. I did.
When I took my sock off at the end, it was covered in blood (nice!) so that explains the foot pain. I think it was just a blister. Another thing I don't get, apart from the seeming randomness of why some runs you feel good and some you don't, is why is the same exact pair of trainers really comfortable when you get your first pair, and then when you see them on sale and by three more pairs (I might have got a bit carried away there), are NONE of the rest the same as the first pair?
So I'm going to have to wear the original pair with a massive hole in for tomorrow's marathon. Which will probably fall apart mid run. If you don't hear from me, please send someone to look along the Vanguard Way, around the Croydon area, where I shall probably be hopping around in circles. Which will either be because 1) I will have only one trainer left, or 2) because the last time I did this marathon, I got lost, and ran about 30 miles, so I imagine the same thing might happen again, and I'll get lost in the same place, and do what I think I did last time which was essentially run around in circles in a wood on the outskirts of Croydon.
As well as the above, other questions that have been puzzling me today include:
1) Buses. For example, if early on a Saturday morning, you need to catch a bus to Waterloo to catch a train to a marathon, and there are two buses you could catch, but one is faster, but the slower one arrives first so you let that one go as the faster one will be only 3 minutes behind.....does the faster one suddenly change it's destination and only go HALF WAY to Waterloo?
2) Spiders. Why, as soon as you will be home alone for a while, do ALL of the spiders come into the house. And if a spider had a choice of ALL of the places in the house that it could sit (if spiders sit, I don't know what they do when at rest), does it sit in the SHOWER. And why does it do that AFTER a difficult marathon, when you don't want any more difficult things to deal with?
3) Chickens on bikes. Why WAS someone carrying a chicken on a bike? Where had it come from? Where was it going to? Was it about to cross a road? And if so, why did the chicken cross the road?........
I hope that tomorrow shall not present so many difficult questions.....
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