Due to password problems with typepad it's been a long time since I posted - sorry!
So a lot's happened - mostly that I've done my first 10k with then not-unreasonable time of 46mins 20s. Of course there's an amusing photograph to accompany this 46mins of pain:
#312 Harticus runs: The pain is fairly self-evident.
The NDRR continue to keep my motivation up - they're a bunch of good guys and I'm almost a fully paid up member...ie, I've filled out the forms but they're sitting on my desk. The 'man' says I can't run races with them until I hand over the money so I'm toeing the line. Yesterday was 6x800m sprints, not really my finest hour as my finishing position got worse and worse with every sprint! My legs are begining to protest afer being out 6 of the last 7 days - yes, even while away for a friends wedding. Any excuse to buy some new gear!
A very good friend gave me a fantastic book which I've just finished - Haruki Murakami's 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' Murakami's a great author with a distinctive style and his musings on marathons, triathalons and running in general have been another source of motivation. It's more a philosophy than a keep fit activity with him - any man who runs a marathon a year and ran from Athens to Marathon in Greece on his own is not doing it to drop a few pounds.
Murakami runs: yesterday. Possibly.
It's nice to start thinking about it a little differently now that I'm
training a little harder. Murakami talks about pain, and I think there
has to be that shift in your expectations - pain becomes something to
be expected, not to be avoided. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying
putting one foot in front of the other, but it's nice to push yourself
that little bit harder and see what you're really capable of.
Also, I've
almost completely given up listening to music as I run. It's a
distraction when I find myself concentrating harder and harder to run
longer distances. I'm surprised at how much I have to concentrate -
elbows up and out, head up, long strides, keep the momentum, look at the clock...and on and
on.
The charity fund raising is going reasonably well despite the fact I haven't put in a massive amount of effort! I'll finally get up to the North Devon Hospice and collect my sponsorship forms etc this afternoon - I don't want to disappoint the very nice Emma who showed me around nearly a month ago! Hmmm...wating for a month to pick up the stuff may have already disappointed her, possibly.
Work is proving...challenging at the moment - getting things together for an appraisal, and typically, Harticus is making trouble for himself as usual by leaving things to the last moment. To mitigate, I have had a big exam, the assessments I need have changed in number over the last 6/12 and I've been working on getting something published. It'll be fine, I'm sure, but I chuckle to myself as I realise that some parts of me haven't changed since I was 15!
There's a big move and a new job in August, both of which I'm looking forward to, and it's time I started taking my career more seriously - I'm very fortunate to have got a training post in a job I really want to do. I think the running helps my focus overall - taking that seriously has made it easier to take other aspect of life more seriously.
A more sombre note to finish then, and a song to suit it.
