Pint at the handy, medal dangling on my neck, on top of my finisher t-shirt.  Just back at the hotel lobby after having dinner with the familee. The dinner was heavy meaty and delicious. We didn't reserve a table for tonihht as I didn't see a life past the Berlin marathon, so didn't plan for it. We got turned down in places as no spaces, but in one, an American couple offered to share their table with us - Alex and Lisa, thank you!! Still digesting the day and so much to say.  I loved absolutely every second of it. For zero seconds did I think or feel "this is sh/t, uncomfortable,  too much etc". My mind is flooded with "best moment" of the day, and it's hard and unfair to pick one.  But if I had to absolutely pick one or else no beer for the rest of my life, it would be reaching the Branderburg gate, turning around, stopping for a second and not being able to contain my absolute delight that I was there, under these circumstances, and rested, full o

This time next Sunday I'd have finished with this whole kerfuffle.  I'm filled ith anxieties:have I trained enough? eaten enough? recovered enough? slept enough? Overall, the current win is succeeding at making the mornings not only bearable, but actually enjoyable. For this I had to let go of late night reading with wine after the kids' bedtime.. This is something I really miss.   I have been agonising over what sort of marathon will my body and mind do next Sunday.   Will everything come together and stay together and I'll be able to get a good time for a first timer?  How will the experience be after km30? I've never ran more than 30km at once.  Will it matter (I hope so) that everyone is going the same way, no stopping at shops to buy water, or stopping at traffic lights, or look at map?  Will I feel overwhelmed or in machine mode in my element?   I have decided to video log every 10km or when something interesting happens, but I won't do that if/when I hi

 What a day! I am absolutelydiscombobulated (please let that be a word) time-wise now and so tired. To my pride, not only have I set the alarm for 5:45AM ( a time where I am never alive), but I did get out of bed, had a coffee, and did my slow jog as per schedule first thing in the morning. Pity I didn't remember to start my running up - swings and roundabouts. I jogged without music, and in the early morning that was absolutely amazing. I fell asleep so late last night , although in bed by 9pm, because just before that moment when sleep comes, my mind decided to remember sh8t-f76k-sh6t-f45k I'm meant to run a marathon in a bit over a week. Then the diareea of thoughts ofcourse went on - running kit-call Place2Be to see if they are OK with me modifying the running top-fundraising (btw pls donate! ) -which shoes, really-don'tforget Vaseline and plasters- compressionsocks or not? -earbuds or wired headphones? -kitty bag extra pasta from restaurant the night before?-battery c

Countdown to Berlin as of today:  3 weeks d4ays Or 180 days Or 25 weeks 5 days Or 45.5% of 2022. Started to look at more training plans, those 16 weeks ones, to choose one that would guarantee passing the finish line.  At the moment we are building up the base, just logging miles as often as we can, together with some yoga and strength training. It is a complicated way of saying I'm legging it out of the house for runs whenever there is a chance, especially during those sweet middle mornings when the kids are at school, doing some yoga with kids on my back later on in the day, which doubles up as strength training.  The other day I felt meh during arun and it prompted me to think why was that. The scary bit for me is that I have a habit of losing interest even in the wildest and most interesting of dreams or projects, after a while. I do not want with all my might that I decide to give up the marathon. So I meditated on it, and it comes down to a few factors: - very likely overtrai

That's me 12 years ago when I wish I had the inspo to train for a marathon. I was great at smoking occasionally and being as away from fitness as I could. Hindsight is great isn't it.   O MY LORD. Almost made it. 2 and a bit weeks left, and with incrementally less training too! I already feel so much more rested after the last few workouts, and it's probably a psychological thing too - when I know I am doing less, I compute that therefore I am more rested! But the kids starting school has kicked me in my shins. Who knows me well knows that I am not a morning person by any stretch of imagination; The summer lax routines may have stressed me a bit, but the Holy Grail has been being able to sleep in a bit.. A lot. I had never got to the point of switching my body clock to matinal settings, because, yeah, summer, things to do, people to see (and the boys taking after me- waking fairly late and wanting to sleep very very late).  It's time to start packing up my stuff for the

When I started this journaling here I was looking forward to a post somewhere in the future where'd I'd be feeling super bionic and remember and describe my first longest run ever, over 25 km or so. That distance looked impressive, next-level, and I imagined I'd feel soooo proud (smug? ) about it. But a 25km done and gone, and no time to post- although been thinking about that run and made a Mental.note to log it. Then, a 30km done and gone, and forgot completely about logging it here. Life - summer hols, kids, heat, guests etc got in the way. Then, another 30km done and gone, and felt I should log it really, if only to remember I did it- but immediately thought it was so slow  and weird, and actually not that enjoyable in the last quarter of it, that I'd rather shelf it and think of pretty things. Then the stars aligned and I've got some head space and I'm wondering actually, when else I'd run such a long way (apart from the marathon,  hopefully), so the