The Beginning Is the End is The Beginning

Oh hoorah I can run again!! After two weeks of enforced resting, my lovely sports physio Gerard has given me the ok to get back into it. Just as well as I've been feeling like the Phys. Ed. students in my 'Legal Issues for School Teachers' lecture today (they were easy to spot because they sat in a cluster and jiggled up and down throughout the entire 45 minute talk, much like a pack of human teabags) - I don't want to sit still, I just want to RUN!!

And time is ticking along. This week marks the beginning of the very significant 16 week period leading up to the marathon. Most training programs are 16 weeks long, including the one in my favourite book, the 'Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer'. So it was psychologically important for me to get back into it this week.

But news! A trainer! I has one! Although I had grand plans to take on this marathon alone, in order to give it my best shot, I thought it might be wise to have someone who knows what they are doing keep an eye on me, keep me motivated and hopefully prevent physical problems before they arise. I shall be catching up with the lovely Peter soon now I am fit to train.

Hopefully, a trainer will also be able to help me with the mental aspect of training as well. Because I had a spectacular anxiety dream about the marathon the other night. In my dream, I had worked out that since it was going to take me 6 hours to run the marathon and everyone else would be taking only 4 hours, I had to give every runner, all 42 000 of them, a 2 hour head start. And that I'd just do a spot of shopping while I waited. In my dream, my faulty arithmetic hit me while I was browsing in a lovely Judaica shop in Brooklyn (anyone who knows me knows this is exactly where I will be browsing once I get to New York so that part had some basis in reality, at least). And I realised that I was already 20km behind everybody else and still had to find the Staten Island starting point. And I was going to be LAST. Again. But this time out of 42 000 people. (Clearly the emotional trauma of the Women's Classic a couple of weekends ago is yet to heal.)

A selection of the 42 000 people to whom I gave a head start

This week's Novice Supreme schedule involves 2 x 5km runs, 1 x 6.5km run and a relatively short 'long' run of 8km. I've done one of the 5km runs already. Hopefully, my fitness hasn't decreased too much and I'll be able to complete the rest without incident.

And (as borrowed from 'Legging It for Louis') Running Song of the Week is ...... 'Like It Like That' by Guy Sebastian. Cheesy, I know, but just the right tempo! (And he has such lovely hair)