On Friday night I had a dream, two in fact. I dreamt it was the start of the London Marathon. I was in a field, with thousands of runners all pushing towards to start line. I glanced at my watch, and it said 9.27 which meant three minutes to go until the start. How exciting! So exciting, in fact, that I decided at this point, that I really needed a wee. Really really needed a wee. I looked at the loo queue, which had been snaking all around the field until then, and saw it had almost gone. I sprinted over, but by the time I got there, other people had already jumped in before me, and were barricading my way into the toilet block. But because I'd already thought I needed a wee, I couldn't unthink it, so I had to wait. When I came out of the toilet block, the field was empty, apart from a few horses, and a cow who was wearing trainers (each a different colour) and a sunhat. I had missed the start! I jogged over the start line, and completed the marathon, but ran it all on my own, and, interestingly for the London Marathon, didn't see a soul, or any of London.
I woke up in a panic. Goodness!!!! Then I realised it was just a dream. Or, a nightmare. I'm not sure which. So I fell back asleep again, and then, and I'm not joking, I dreamt the same thing. The exact same thing! Only the cow had moved a bit to underneath a tree (I was going to say, mooooved, but I didn't), and had taken off it's sunhat and trainers and given one trainer to each of the different horses, who were all prancing around the tree in circles.
I woke up again in panic and this time I couldn't get back to sleep. I think I have a real problem. I wasn't running anywhere this weekend, and it must have been on my mind. What was I missing! I hadn't got anything else planned! Everyone else would be doing things, and seeing each other, and here was I with a whole weekend and nothing to do.
I found it a bit hard this week, after I'd finished the Running for Hannah Challenge, feeling a bit empty, like I had no purpose anymore. I always do, after I finish something. I know that this is probably actually a real problem, all joking aside, that I can't just step back, and relax for a bit, and think that oh yeah it's quite good that I managed to do that. But I decided that now wasn't the time to deal with this problem, I've ignored it for long enough after all, so I spent Saturday booking races. I realised that I could just about do 52 marathons in 52 weeks, if I got my act together. If you do that, you achieve a Global Marathons Challenge, and you can get a special vest and medal. I've done 40 marathons/ ultras since the beginning of November last year, so if I do 12 more before the end of October I'll have done it. To make myself feel better, and give myself a focus, I booked them all up yesterday:
03.08.19 - Phoenix Spring Marathon
04.08.19 - Vanguard Way
10.08.19 - Phoenix One Run to Rule Them All
11.08.19 - Saturn Forrest Run
24.08.19 - White Cliffs 32 miles
25.08.19 - Woldingham Marathon
😎😎😎HOLIDAYS!😎😎😎
21.09.19 - Phoenix Race to the Thrones #1
21.09.19 - Phoenix Race to the Thrones #2
05.10.19 - GBC Autumn #1 (thanks Jon for the prize in your prize draw!)
06.10.19 - GBC Autumn #2
19.10.19 - X-Run Saturn
20.10.19 - Zoovengers Run Saturn
I also booked the Athens Marathon in November, and maybe Lanzarote or one in Thailand in December, as it is time to extend my horizons. One thing I love is exploring new places through running, and it's outrageous that so far the only abroad marathon I have done is the Palma Marathon back in 2012. I spend far too much time worried and stressed about work and the future, and not enough thinking about other things right now. After spending a whole day with nothing to do but think, I realised that this must be fixed! I also realised that to complete my A-Z Marathons/ Ultra Challenge (where you collect races beginning with different letters) I only need Q and Y. So far, I found Queenstown in New Zealand or Quebec or Queen City in Canada, for Q, which sounds like the basis for another holiday. And maybe the Year End Marathon at Phoenix for Y, if I can get the day off from work..... And then once I've done those, I might start on some other stuff.....
Then I went to bed on Saturday night, and had two more dreams. The first dream, I was a phoenix, and I was going to Phoenix to do two marathons in a day (I can kind of see where this came from, as I had entered those races earlier in the day)...this time I made the start line, but I'd forgotten to take a change of clothes, and hadn't taken any socks. I woke up, and was about to get up and put them in my bag, before I realised I wasn't going to Phoenix today. So I went back to sleep and had another dream, where this time, it was time for another Phoenix race, but this time I was late, as it was 08:00 and I was still at home, and the race started at 09:30, and I would have to drive, but there was no petrol in the car. Somehow I made it (maybe in some kind of a spacecraft, it being 50 years since the first moon landing and all), and was sat at a picnic bench waiting to start, when one of the nurses from work arrived, and told me I was eating the wrong things, and that I had order the wrong feeding tube for a patient. As I said, I need to stop thinking about work.
Anyway, I woke up and decided that all this thinking was too much, and it was time for a run. I was very proud, as for the first time in a few runs, I managed to run past an ice cream van without stopping:
This is was mostly because we were running through the Olympic Park and the athletics was on at the stadium, and I felt a bit pressured to look like I was putting maximum effort in.
I do like running around here, it's such a great space to run in:
People always say to me that it must be really boring running in London. It's not exciting in the way that running out in the countryside is, I agree, but I never find it boring. There's always so much to watch, even on my standard run home from work, which isn't a nice route at all. And east London is brilliant to run around with all the canals, rivers and parks; it sounds kind of weird I know, but it is really green for a city, and I love it in a different sort of way to how I love running in other places. It's even got cows and horses, just like in my dream.
East London - it's Gnome Sweet Home!
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