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.

How did I end up running the London Marathon?

 

Quite painful this training session and my running gear took some time to warm up (no, I do not mean the cloths, I mean my muscles!). My brain was asleep all the way…no signs of intelligence whatsoever. Towards the end of the session I realised that I had listened to the same song for over thirty minutes…my ipod was on repeat.

Meanwhile I was wondering how I ended up running the London Marathon. Well, it was one of those great collective ideas from Goodenough. Over the summer, I was writing like crazy for my PhD (back then I still hoped to finish everything by September). My friend Alma was her usual amazing self, supporting me in every possible way, while doing the PhD herself. One evening, on the rooftop, over a glass of wine, she told me about her brother who used to live in Goodenough. Her brother was training for a triathlon. Following his example, Alma had decided to run a marathon in order to keep herself busy and healthy. I immediately jumped in and decided to do it too. Of course I had no clue about what it involved, but sometimes ignorance is a bliss. The London marathon was the easiest option (as it did not involve any travelling) and Goodenough was my only choice in terms of charities. However, we did not know if we would get places. In the meantime, Alma’s father died, she had to go back to Mexico to support her family. I stayed here and kept running, training and hoping that on the 22^nd of April Alma would be there to watch me running and be proud of the way her idea materialised.