Day godknowswhat- Triumphant Return or Blatant Stupidity?

 

Where to even start. It’s been…how long now? A while.  It’s with a heavy heart I write this incredibly late post about how I ghosted for several weeks but then rose like a blue-eyes white dragon on yo’ ass to put myself back in the running. \Pun/

Sit down, babe. This is going to be a long one.

So much for updating this daily. But to be fair, after a point I reckoned it was no longer worth it. You don’t care about the mundane details of my life outside of training, I’d imagine. I’d hope. No point in me coming to you to tell you of yet another day where I sat out and away from the park. We were all growing sick of the woe-is-me stories.

So why write now, you quip, reluctantly?

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After… let’s say… a month (more, lol) off from any form of vigorous exercise, I’m hopping back on the proverbial horse. Against all better judgment I’ve convinced myself that the right thing to do would be to see this lil’ thing to the end. I’m determined. And I’m stubborn as hell. 

Just a few of us on the last day!

At the Thank You event. Free wine 🙂

Since deciding it was time to start back I’ve run three times. I don’t remember exact dates but it was sometime Mid-March where I went fuck this, I’m doing it. This bout of determination was cemented when I attended the final event for ReachOut (the charity I’m running for), where they passionately thanked us for our hours spent volunteering with the children, and gave an extra bit for those of us about to run the half-marathon. This was Thursday 17th. After that I thought shit, I gotta do it now. And so I will.

Again, who needs knees??

The “smart” setup. Ha.

But really though, the first time back I did *checks RunKeeper* an easy 3.01 miles. And when I say easy I mean oh haha 3 miles should really be nothing for someone this knee-deep (hah) into training. It was, for me, by no means easy. I ran with my brace on to be as smart as possible whilst being stupid. It took me 40 minutes to that but I was happy to be back in the swing of things for the most part.

gorg.

Missed this, really.

Back at it.

I ran again 3 days later and only managed 2.42 miles, in 30 mins. This was slightly disheartening because it felt like I was right back to where I started, and all my efforts during the first half of training had instantaneously become null and void. Thinking back to this day I believe I stopped the workout prematurely 1 because I needed to come back home and get dressed for work and 2 I didn’t want to push my luck with the injury…

Okay so I’m checking through it all now and the last recorded run prior to these was January 31st, my mum’s birthday (holla). So that means I had like 6 weeks off. I am so behind.

Now, with all of that you’d think I’d say shit. Probably best to cut my losses, for real this time. But no, beloved. For I am going.to.finish.this.marathon. Even if I have to waddle my way to the end I will frigging make it there There are far too many things in my life that I’ve left unfinished, or unresolved; incomplete. I will finish this, I swear.

 

Blatantly stupid? Unabashedly ignorant? Ridiculous? —Probs.

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NOW. ABOUT YESTERDAY.

 

Right, so on to the good stuff. The happy ending to this Saga’s middle chapter. My best friend T came over and we ran together. Not before 2 hours of watching a newfound favourite socially/politically-aware young philosopher of mine, but we ran. Now, you can go back through my older posts if you want but I’ll save you trouble in saying that never have I ever, ever since training, been able to make it to 6 miles. I DID SIX MILES. At this stage it shouldn’t be that big of a deal but it really freaking is for me. Given how much pain I was in, the setbacks, general self-disappointment I was feeling for having to reign it in weeks ago…this was fantastic.

Me lagging behind, hah.

By this shoddy photography you can see I was really giving it my all/struggling.

 

Running with a partner is honestly the best. I followed my friends footsteps and it kept me going. Usually I will jog-walk-jog —and this is what I did for the first maybe 3 miles of my training on Friday. However, I said I was ready to call it quits, but when I saw my friend still going at it (a beast, they jogged the entire 6 miles non-stop) I mustered up the energy to resume activity and really, really push myself.

 

Kinda like when I hear “Sweet Disposition” by the Temper Trap and I scrape out another 5 minutes of energy from the bottom of my alveoli. Except this time I reached deep for another 40 minutes of non-stop, well-paced jogging to carry my to the 6-mile mark. Yes.

A new personal best. And a new wave of motivation. If I keep at it and run smart, maybe, just maybe, I can make it to the end in good time (i.e. ideally under 3 hours at this stage).

 

We’ve got a long weekend now; Easter Holiday (lol ty bby Jesus x), plus UCL does extra closure days so I have plenty-a-time to recuperate and adjust but for now I feel fucking amazing.

GPOY, because I felt 16/10 after crushing my post-injury training sesh.

GPOY, because.

 

 

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