A lazy week

After all the long runs in training for the marathon I've decided I should be able to improve quite a bit on my half marathon time from last year. When I ran the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow last September, it was the furthest run I'd ever done, and I found the last few miles almost as tough as I found the end of the marathon last month. These days 13.1 miles is a much more comfortable distance and recently I've been thinking about doing that same race again and trying to improve my time.

However, before I'd actually got round to signing myself up, last week I found out about some free charity places for 'the world's biggest half marathon' - the Great North Run. This is the second most famous mass participation race in the UK (after the London Marathon) and entry is usually through a ballot. This seemed too good an opportunity to miss so I emailed the charity, and on Friday got confirmation of my place!

With about 54,000 runners, this'll be by far the most crowded race I've ever done so the chances of doing the best time I can will be pretty small. Instead of going for a PB, I'm thinking I should treat this more as a fun experience. As I'm running for charity I might even dress up a bit!

I'm really excited about the Great North Run, but I'm left with a bit of a dilemma. If I'm not going to get a good time in this race, I'm wondering about doing another half as well. The GNR is 19th September, and this year's Glasgow half is 2 weeks before on the 5th. I could 'race' that, then saunter round the GNR for fun. Hmm, will have to think about this, and consult my long-suffering support crew, Pete and the kids.

Meanwhile I've had a very lazy week. After 2 miles on Tuesday, I managed 4.5 on Wednesday at Jog Scotland, where I jogged at the back with a pregnant runner - just my post-marathon pace! On Friday I was in my trainers and ready to go, but ended up just not having time on a busy evening. I hate it when that happens. I was working yesterday, and then last night I went out with a group of unleashed Mums, and got through a large amount of red wine.

I rarely drink much these days and hardly ever go out, but it felt pretty good to have a night off from being responsible and healthy, and I got back about 2am. Of course Emma woke me up at 6am this morning as usual, so today I've been too tired to do much at all. I also made a couple of cakes on Friday which I've helped to consume, so next week I really have to get stuck in to some good running again. I'm looking forward to getting back on track as my legs are still recovering from the marathon, and it feels like a long time since I had a good run. So there's a new goal - to increase my speed and look towards a half marathon PB!















A sleepy Sunday in front of the tv.