Day 13: Friday
That's right. Friday the 13th. Friday flippin 13th. I'm not superstitious as a rule. I've walked under plenty of ladders and no disaster has befallen. Plenty of black cats have walked across my path, but I didn't win the lottery (even when I did buy a ticket). That thing about not putting shoes on a table just sounds daft; why would you ever put shoes on a table?? I've survived plenty of Friday 13ths so far. So maybe it was time for a bad one. I woke up at 4:30 as I was worried about the election result, which was terribly bad because, one it was 4:30 AM, and two, the election result. This is no place for politics, especially bad politics, so I will leave that there, and move on to the next unlucky thing I realised, which was that I had a stinking cold. Then I went to work, which obviously wasn't going to improve things, and in fact surpassed even the usual standards of horror today, so by the time I dragged my sorry self out of the door at 6 pm for day 13 of my running streak, I was pretty much sure of how it was going to turn out.
Which may or may not have been a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I thought, plodding through the dark, stepping in puddles, getting splashed by buses, whilst every single traffic light was red. Friday 13th happens at least once a year (but two this year, the last one was in September) and if the month begins with Sunday, it will have a Friday 13th. The superstition is shrouded in mystery, which probably means someone just said something about it once, and then it stuck. But it might be based on the Last Supper, where Jesus and his 12 disciples (13) sat together for the last time on the 13th of the month of Nisan, before Jesus was crucified the day after. Which I would have thought would have made the 14th more unlucky, but anyway. Other places say Friday and 13 and unlucky weren't all put together until the 19th century. In other countries (e.g. Spain) Thursday 13th is considered unlucky, and in Italy it's Friday 17th. This is starting to get too many to keep track of, and as there doesn't actually seem to be any basis to this superstition, I'm going to forget about it and hope tomorrow is better....
Day 14: Saturday
...it was, and although I felt like a sack of potatoes on my run around Victoria Park with Andrew, at least it my first run this week in daylight, and it was actually quite sunny. Fortunately, the route home is past Broadway Market, which is another way of saying, coffee and cake. Ha, Friday 13th, be gone!
Day 15: Sunday
Today was the Sikhs in the City Dawn to Dusk race. I did this last year, and I loved it. It starts at sunrise, 08:04 and the laps are just over a mile, so for a marathon you have to run 21 laps, or you can run until sunset. I woke up feeling like absolute rubbish, but I wasn't going to miss it, so took another dose of cold and flu tablets, and headed on over. I think this is the closest marathon to me, it's just a few stops on the central line to Redbridge or South Woodford and then a mile or so walk to the start. The event base is in the car park of Mulalley in an industrial estate, and the route is sort of up hill for the first half, then down hill along a busy road for the second. If you say it like that, it doesn't sound that promising, but let me tell you, it's one of my favourite events! It's true, lots of the time it's nice to run in beautiful places and explore, but sometimes, where you are doesn't matter, it's who you are with that makes it beautiful. SITC put on top events, well organised, welcoming, fun, delicious food and hot drinks a plenty, and a great crowd. There were so many people there today, it was really good fun. Got to share some laps with Andy (amazing comeback!) and then Richard (100 marathons in 52 weeks - congratulations!) at the start, and then Craig (welcome back!) lapped me and I ran the rest with him. Plus lots of chats on the way round, Costas, Teresa, Julia, Ben (flake marathon) Tim and Jenny, David, Rob, Superman, Sunny, Lynne, Sai-Yee, Sean and Vanessa, and everyone else of course. Thank you all for a great day!
Whilst we were all sat around at the end, eating onion bajis, samoas and curry, and and hot drinking tea and hot chocolate, I heard my name announced. I thought 1) I was in trouble, or 2) I had left something somewhere and someone had found it. But turns out I came 2nd lady in the marathon! Lynne came 1st and Sai-Yee 3rd...
That was a nice surprise!
The good thing about a local marathon that starts at 8am is that you get home early. I was planning on all sorts of things with the rest of the day, but in the end, I felt so tired I fell asleep, and had a dream where I was running with the Serpies and Alan on a running holiday, but hadn't brought trainers, so was running in gold flip flops....
