Well right now the news, both in the papers and personally, is all really sad. Obviously, with the Manchester attack. And all the other attacks that seem to happen all the time in other countries as well. And there are several friends and family members who are ill at the moment.
It's all feeling quite a dark time, and it's difficult to look at things and see what possible reason there could be for things happening. Why do people attack others in this way? Why do amazing and lovely and kind people get really sick? Whatever are the answers to everything that's happening?
Why?
Why?
I'm also feeling pretty apprehensive about the weekend ahead. So am in a bit of a dip about things this morning.
So I'm just going to write about something nice instead, and hope that's OK with everyone, because writing is quite cathartic, and my Mum (who The 100 is for) has always told me to think of something nice in a dark time, and think of happiness to challenge the sadness.
Well, here goes. The weekend before last was our last training weekend before The 100 (and here's something I've just noticed, if you miss 't' off of 'training' you get 'raining'. Ha!). So on Saturday Andrew and I went to the Chilterns to do a training marathon. I feel dubious when I think about the Chilterns. On the one hand, I had two really awful experiences there in the dead of winter when we went to do some training marathons - but I'm sure I've written about that previously, so won't bore you with woe again. But on the other I had a great run at the Oxon 40 a couple of weeks ago, where I thought I'd finally put the Chiltern demons to bed. Apparently last weekend they'd decided it was time to get up again. Oh, hurrah. But I'm not supposed to be giving air time to negative thoughts, so the Chiltern demons will have to get back in their box (and stay there for all of eternity, ideally).
After that pa-lava, the next day it was time for The Meridian Meander. This is a circular marathon in Cambridgeshire, along the River Great Ouse (and isn't that just the best name!) I almost bottled it to be honest, after the previous day. But I consoled myself with the knowledge that all I had to do was 1) go, 2) do it, 3) eat the cake at the end, oh and 4) there was to be a BBQ at the end as well, so if I made it that far, I promised myself a sausage.
Didn't seem too bad a deal. And boy am I glad I did it, because it turned out to be one of my favourite runs ever! The weather was spectacular, which helped. Sunshine sunshine sunshine (until about 15 minutes after we finished, when it chucked it down, so I'm sure people who finished a little later will disagree with my enthusiasm for the weather). The route description - also spectacular. Didn't get lost, not once, not during the whole marathon, which is genuinely a record. It wasn't a timed race (the event was to raise money for the Over Day Centre, and included a marathon and 18 mile run/ walk, plus The 5 Pubs Challenge - see later), so there were lots of people all doing different things, and you could basically start when you wanted within a couple of hours, which took the pressure off worrying about times and all that. There were three wonderful checkpoints on the way round, stocked with all sorts of delicious treats. The date flapjack slice will remain forever in my mind as a particularly delectable form of rocket fuel.
So, 'The 5 Pubs Challenge'. This was another event on the same day, and shared some of its route with our route. The only difference being that The 5 Pubs Challenge had signposts (I suppose to assist on the journey from pint 1 to pint 2 etc etc). I stopped right before one, and stared at it for a good while. There was a 5 Pubs challenge, right here, and I had opted instead to do a marathon involving not 5 pubs, but 0 pubs. There was clearly something wrong with my ability to make rational decisions.
Diddums. Oh well, it was sunny, I had some electrolyte tablets that at least I could use to make my (by now quite warm) water resemble something more exciting, and I still had a bit of that date flapjack left. Who needs a pub? (I can't believe I asked that).
Here are some snaps of the day:
The Meridian Line!
Andrew running towards St Ives (see how fast he is going? - towards the heavenly date flapjack)
The River Great Ouse
The River Great Ouse again (it's pretty great)
A great path by the River Great Ouse (still great)
A beautiful poppy
I feel sunny inside just looking back at the photos. I only wish I was a better photographer and had taken more, I honestly had no idea that that part of the country was so beautiful. Some of the villages we went though (Hemingford Grey, St Ives, Houghton) were just breathtaking - I felt like I was running across one of those pictures on a chocolate box. And the paths along the river were just like being in wonderland. So green! So many flowers!
Another favourite moment came at Jones Boatyard, just outside St Ives. Andrew had popped to the loo, so I waited outside, lost in a daydream about which luxury yacht I'd get if I won the lottery (which reminded me, I should really buy a ticket). My thoughts were brought back to reality by three walkers arriving, and two of them also went to the loo, while their fellow walker and I got chatting. Turns out he was from a nearby village, and he often walked his dog on this route, but today the dog was having a break at home, as he was a spaniel and 'no good at pacing himself' (sounds familiar). Then, he said that a few months ago, there had been a murder committed nearby, and the murderer had jumped into the river right here and tried to swim away up the river. Fortunately, he didn't get very far before he gave up and climbed out and handed himself over to the police, where he pleaded guilty to the crime. Gosh. It all looks so idyllic here, although actually quite like somewhere where Midsomer Murders would be filmed, I suppose. Still, it was definitely a first for 'conversation topics with fellow competitors'.
Met up with some people who we knew from previous races, including Neil who we'd met the week before at the Ridgeway. Now we've been doing quite a lot of these things, am enjoying getting to know people, it's like having a really big group of friends - but friends who don't stay still for very long, so if you want to talk, you have to keep up.
Another nice thing to focus on is the sponsorship that's been coming in, and helping our total for The Rosemere go up and up! You are all so generous, and thank you from the bottom of my heart! From my Mum's experience, I know that The Rosemere really makes such a huge difference to people's experience of their cancer treatment, and thinking that you are all behind us in supporting this just makes me feel so so happy. THANK YOU!!!!!!!
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