A bit more to go and my half marathon

Only 11 days to go till the big day of the Marathon. I am starting to get excited (and scared at the same time. I have not quite figured out yet how these two work together). In the meantime I do the best I can to keep fit and positive. There is not much running around these days, just a bit to keep my legs on track. I did a few k in the morning and a few in the evening. It seems strange, almost as if my body does not want to move anymore. At least not before the big show. It must be related to my half marathon experience.

On the 25^th of March I went to Hastings for a half marathon. I have no doubts that this was one of the greatest days of my life. Before the day, I had not given too much thought to the race. As a real novice, I had not even checked the route, leaving everything to the last minute. So, it was a blast to see that Hastings was quite hilly and more than half of the route was running up the hill. In the end it did not matter, because I managed to finish the fist 20 something k of my life in a rather decent time for my standards: 2:35:30.

The experience was fantastic because of two main reasons: Marsha Providence and the energy of the street. Marsha was again my guarding angel. Her kindness and generosity are far beyond what I can describe! She woke up on a Sunday morning and travelled to Hastings with me, greeted me at the finish line, walked around with me, stretched with me and even asked people for chocolate to feed me. We finished our day in a Mexican restaurant in Charing Cross (thanks Javier for recommending it a million years ago).Thank you Marsha!

The other reason that made my day special was the incredible energy of the street. Frankly, I had never thought that I would be able to run so far. In fact if someone would have asked me to do it a year ago, I would have just laughed. In Hastings though, for the first time in my life it crossed my mind that maybe I could actually do that. It was probably the sun, the people cheering on the streets, the smell of the salty water, the oranges and the sweets given by the locals. It was that feeling of pure happiness when crossing the finish line, such happiness that literally took my breath away for a second.  I don’t know what it was, but if the London Marathon is half as good as Hastings experience then it is worth all the training and all the pain. Look forward to this one!

The marathon poster

The temptations of quitting smoking

As running and smoking don’t really go together, I decided to quit. Smoking not running! Today I went out to buy my last pack of cigarettes. Here is the conversation between me and the guy who sells cigarettes at a small shop by the LSE.

Me: A ten Marlborough Lights please.

Him: Why not a 20?

Me: Well, I am trying to quit…

Him: Why m’am?

Me: Well, you know it’s healthier…

Him: Nooooooo m’am!!!! Everybody dies!!!

Me: But maybe one dies later, if one does not smoke?

Him (very convinced): Noooo m’am!!! My grandfather never ever smoked and he died very young. Very very young!

Me (with hope): Oh, so you are a smoker too?

Him: Nooooo m’am! Never smoked! But that does not matter! We all have to die sooner or later!

Me: I think I will stick to my 10…

Him: Please don’t quit! My boss will think I do not do a good job here – not selling enough merchandise…

Me: Always glad to help :)

Him: Thank you! Have a nice evening m’am! Enjoy your cigarettes!

Leaving the shop I had a good feeling as if I’ve done something really good today. What would that be?

Great news courtesy of the London Marathon team

http://www.marathonnewstv.com/?f=Roxana&l=Bratu&ch=Goodenough&n=1

Joy ride

After many days (and nights) thinking and moaning about my lack of capacity to run and raise a decent £50,000 for the College, I decided to go out and do something about it. Nothing dramatic, but something. So, yesterday around 7am I went out for a run along the Thames. It is with great joy that I can report a 10k in about one hour and a half. My route was pretty straightforward: Russell Square, Holborn, Temple Station, running along the Thames up to Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Victoria station, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, British Museum, Goodenough College. The run included a few short stops at Westminster Abbey to pray, at Victoria to check the trains, in Leicester Square because I lost my way and around the British Museum to breath a bit. This was my first time running around London, so when I left the College I felt as if I was doing the Virgin Marathon then and there. If the final thing is nearly as exciting as this one, let it come!

After the run, I had a podiatry appointment to check my feet. The meeting was very instructive at different levels. Firstly, I realised that my English is not nearly as good as I thought. To my dismay I forgot the name of the mortal disease that brought me to the doctor and after going around in circles for about five minutes we discovered what I was suffering from. It was…blisters! Yes, in an era when people have all sorts of modern conditions with funky names, I suffer from the most banal thing! Embarrassing! This brings me to my second monumental discovery that is related to treatment. Apparently the most efficient treatment against my blisters is…to stop running. The doctor intelligently pointed out that if I want to get rid of any disease I should cut the underlying cause; in this case I had blisters because I ran, so if I cut running, my blisters would be gone. This straightforward, positivist reasoning left me mute for a few seconds. After I recovered I suggested more realistic approaches like referring me to another doctor for a second opinion or meeting again in a few weeks after I buy new running socks. He agreed to both maybe because I explained enthusiastically that I ran for charity and that the charity was Goodenough College. Who knows, next time when I see him, he might even donate some money to support the cause…

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

After a two week silence, I decided to come back with news. It has been a really tough two weeks with unbelievable highs and really low points. On the bright side, I am very proud to announce that I attended my first race ever on the 4^th of February at 10am in the morning. It was a 5k run around Richmond Park. The race was long, the weather was cold and I have never felt happier in my entire life. Marsha Providence was my fellow runner/guarding angel. Thank you Marsha for waking up at 6am on a Saturday, coming to Richmond Park to run with me and making my day so lovely!

On the dark side, I took a break from training. It was a four day interruption because of studies, work and fear. After my gorgeous performance from Saturday, it snowed for a day or so and it got really cold. Also, I bought some new Adidas shoes for my training from the Virgin London Marathon discount day (40% less). I do not know if it was the weather or the shoes, but I somehow started to run less and less. My feet seemed to completely resent the new shoes; my lungs profoundly disliked the cold air; my tonus seemed to have vanished and I got scared. Am I going to be able to run the Marathon? Am I going to be ready in time? Am I going to raise enough money? How am I going to do all these things?

For four days I have been thinking about these questions and tried to find solutions for everything. The truth is that I do not know how the marathon is going to be. Also, I can’t think too much about the 40 something kilometres that I have to run in April. All I can do is to give it my best shot and hope that it will work. Fingers crossed and if you have some advice for a beginner please email me!

In the meantime…Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Milestones

 

This cold makes me sleep more, eat sweets and stay indoors. It also makes me want to run forever because when I stop I freeze. There is no middle ground. No gentleness in transitions from out to in-doors. However, I managed to do a clean 8k this morning in less than one hour (‘morning’ is an overstatement! It was already noon by the time I finished running). My performance was good and I was pleased with myself in the end – normal breathing, little pain in my muscles, decent pace… I could have run more, but I reminded myself that my PhD was waiting to be finished.

I left the garden to go to school feeling a bit jealous on the squirrels, foxes, birds, flowers and even the sun; they seem to have no deadlines, no anxieties about the quality of their work, no supervision meetings. Stuck with the idea of supervision meetings for animals, I spent some time today checking the social organisation of squirrels (and ended up reading about dominant and mating behaviour). As compared to that, my chapter five seemed rather uninteresting, so I started to read a book chapter about bouncers. Considering that the latter had been written by my supervisor, I felt that I was making considerable progress in my work.

Towards the end of the day, I actually started to write a new chapter. At this point I am quite excited and intrigued – how will this chapter turn out? How will I write it? Will it be good? It always takes me some time to get in tune with any new piece that I write. No matter how certain I am about what I write, no matter how detailed my outline is. People have different milestones in their lives. For me, every new beginning is a milestone. Especially in writing.