Helloo, Spring?! Where are you!

I thought it was almost spring? Why is it still so cold? It doesn’t help that my office’s air conditioning is currently set to -3 or that the bloody boiler at home is still broken, we are heading into day 9 of no heating and no hot water (thank you to all those who have let me use their showers, radiators and beds over the last week).

I now walk around my house draped in various layers of clothing, including a hat, gloves, scarf, 2 pairs of socks and slippers. I have also developed a slight stoop to cope with the weight of so many clothes, I look like a bagwoman! Housemate has started using the kettle and 4 pots of water heating on the hot plates to get enough hot water for a bath, which he then takes turns in using with his girlfriend (the bath is too small for two). My bed now resembles the princess and the pea’s; there are so many duvets and blankets on it and yet I am forced to keep my head under the covers for warmth and then poke it out for air, it’s a fine line between survival and suffocation.

Any way, my point in telling you all this, is so you can appreciate why running was even harder last week and why I only managed 2 runs. As I had failed to do the 12 miles on Monday night (due to the plumber popping round), I was determined that it was going to happen on Thursday. With my goal insight I planned my route - several loops around Clapham would reach 12 easily. Why does it always feel like I’ve run further than I have? The last couple of miles were so hard and slow, Take That and their ‘never forget’ gave me a welcome boost (I really need to get some good songs on that playlist!) but it wasn’t enough! By the time I got home I was convinced I’d run about 15 miles, or maybe 13.2 (a half marathon length) at the least! No! It was only 11 miles! 11 tiny miles! That’s only like 1 mile for than the 10 miles! How could this be! I was gone for days! Actually I was gone for exactly 2 hours, 11 miles in 2 hours, yeah! I’m that slow!

I crawled in the house, heart broken, ran an ice bath and did my stretching. Shaking after the ice bath, I then drove to my friends and used her hot shower (ahhhh hot water, it feels soooo good!) and then drove home, cooked dinner at 11 pm and finally went to bed. I had a job interview on Friday morning and non-surprisingly I was running late. Something had happened to my legs over night and they no-longer worked. Apparently you have these things between your legs and your hips called hip flexes. If you upset them, power walking to an interview is impossible. Walking in heels is a no no and crossing your legs on the tube causes an embarrassing scream of pain and your fellow passengers shuffling away from you. It wasn’t just the hip flex’s though! My entire body hurt! Every thing! My arms, feet, stomach. I suspect the interviewer thought I was a robot! Why am I doing this running again?

Saturday night involved a housewarming party, the host introduced me to a man who was also running the marathon. Brilliant I thought, I could ask for some tips and judge where I am in my training. Yeah, he didn’t make me feel any better. He was aiming to finish the marathon in 3 and a half hours and is currently up to 16 miles on his long runs. He gave me the pity look! He was trying to be nice but it was as if he was saying ‘I’m sure you won’t die, I’m sure you’ll be fine…umm honestly’ I saw the truth in his eyes though, he was clearly lying!

In order to make my self feel better I posted a question on a running forum website asking if I’m on track etc, the response from seasoned runners wasn’t encouraging. Apparently, if I can’t run 15 mile by the 19^th of March then I will die. Great. So, my new set of marathon goals are:

1.    Get round the marathon

2.    Don’t poo my self

3.    Don’t die