It was exactly a month ago that I learnt I had moved from the reserve list to the active list of runners on Leukaemia Care’s team for the 2013 London marathon. Scary moment. I applied in October 2012, having done the whole ‘procrastination as active decision-making process’ thing by not applying in September when they still had spaces. I guess I was thinking, if it’s meant to be, it will happen. I guess that means it’s meant to be. Ooofff.
I only took up jogging again in the summer (as readers of my very occasional ‘Vineyard Joggings’ will know) after a seven-eight year hiatus (and that had only lasted for about a year with a 20-something year hiatus before that), so I hardly have ‘form’. I guess sometimes the perfect storm of forces aligns to encourage life-changing processes to start, and this certainly feels like one of those.
So here I am, in training (!) for a marathon. I’ve never run a running race, ah, except the egg-and-spoon when I was somewhere between the ages of four and six. Yes I remember a grassy track with white lanes painted on it. I used to be sporty at school, but that was a hugely long time ago. And no proper athletics/running, apart from maybe in the freezing cold to get BACK from the sports fields which were exposed to icy blasts and razor-rods of rain off the English Channel at Southsea.
I thought I might chart my progress through this process, to the completion of project marathon on April 21st , (her Maj’s birthday), if only for my own amusement.