The continuing adventures of a girl trying to achieve forty things before she hits the grand old age of forty...
Running a Marathon is the classic ‘before you’re forty’ achievement. As the very thought strikes fear into my heart (and knees) I thought this option might be the best. My brother found it online; it’s a Marathon but you do it in fancy dress and there are lots of stops for wine and nibbles. It sounds very civilised and at least there shouldn’t be too many hard core athletes competing. At the worst I can just walk around in the sun.
In preparation Penny and I signed up for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon; a half marathon in Edinburgh with a Rock band playing every mile to spur you on.
I’ve actually been quite pleased with my training for once. I’m not normally very good at pushing myself and running around the city means I have a good excuse to stop at the traffic lights a lot. Still, I’ve managed to go at least twice or three times and week and to be consistent. It seems to have paid off. I went running in the wind, the dark and the rain and even once in the snow. For those of you worrying I’m going to become some boring athlete though, I’ve still eaten far too much chocolate and celebrated good training runs with yummy puddings and chips (not together).
The big day finally came 15th April. I was so nervous. The furthest race I’d run previously was 10k and the longest training run was 10 miles, which I ran once. I fully expected to stop a lot along the way. Or to run it very slowly. Or to run it and then faint, or throw up, or both. In fact I was very proud of myself and frankly amazed!
I was determined to do things properly this time, having previously run a 10k after a ‘hen do’. Even one glass of champagne doesn’t sit well being jogged up and down the next day. So this time I drank lots of water, ate lots of pasta and had an early night. Of course I didn’t sleep much and had the usual dreams about turning up late and running the race in my pyjamas.
In the morning we woke to a perfect day; cold but dry and sunny. You could tell those who had turned up from England and those who were used to training in Scotland. The latter were fleeced up to the nines whilst the former were shivering in vests and slimline tops. It was freezing at first but in the end perfect weather for a run; not too warm with a blue sky and slight breeze down the hills. Just right. The course was the best too. I was wonderful to run through such a beautiful city. We went along the sea front and through the park. Lots of people lined the streets, banging pans, waving and cheering. I even managed to wave back and found myself grinning like a loon all the way. Every mile we had the rock and roll bands, so you could hear your progress as well as see it. I was basically fuelled on Gu energy gels and adrenalin. In fact, I think it took three days for the sugar to wear off. The last mile up the Mound was a slump, but once I had the finish line in my sights I managed a last burst of energy. A very respectable 2 hours 14 minutes. Quite proud of myself.
Plus at the end we got a proper space man silver blanket and a whacking great medal. Hurray! Just need to keep it up now.
PS- I mainly did it for the self motivation, but if you want if you are suitably impressed with my efforts there are two splendid charities I can recommend.
My good friend Lisa’s charity, A Rocha:
And my good friend Megan’s charity, Ripple Africa:
Number 13: Learn a new language (progressing slowly)
This is quite a challenging one and one which I suspect will take me a long time to ‘tick off’ properly. I have a decent amount of French, having spent many happy holidays there as a young girl, and a spattering of German. I can also ask for a cup of tea in Thai and Swedish. Very useful.
In the end I thought that Spanish would be a useful acquisition. South America is somewhere I would be interested to visit and more immediately I’m off to Barcelona in May. Brilliantly, my friend bought me learn Spanish CDs, so I can play them in my car. I should explain that it takes me an hour to drive to work everyday, so it’s a brilliant opportunity to make the most of those wasted hours. Sometimes I also listen to Miss Marple, but that’s another story...
It’s an interesting technique. The CD combines a flirty sounding Spanish woman and a geeky sounding English man chatting away in their respective languages over a variety of music. Some of them quite funky and some more folky. Somehow it’s supposed to stick in your head, the combination of repetition and music. It’s quite a challenge sometimes to navigate the motorway whilst asking the quickest way to the post office, but I’m finding if I repeat each section three times it just about sticks in my head.
So far I can order wine, beer, water, bread, cheese, salad and olives, so at least I won’t starve. More recently I’ve progressed on to being able to buy shoes and find my way to the Picasso Museum. Essentials for any tourist!
