This is a bit of a sad feeling, because although I am still determined to start and finish the race, I will not be able to run it "well", and I will certainly not beat my personal best from the one other half marathon I have run (the Bristol half marathon in 2011) when I finished in just over 2 hours, tying with my dad and beating both my brothers by minutes. (Now THAT was a proud moment). Instead, due to a really low-key, non-dramatic, tendon problem I have been unable to train and anything more than a REALLY slow jog starts to hurt, so I anticipate doing the race at a walk-speed jogging pace, taking more than 3 hours I reckon. Because I know you really shouldn't keep running through the pain, even though it's really minor pain.
I have two friends running with me so I guess I'll aim to start with them and keep up with them for as long as it doesn't feel too detrimental to my gluteal tendon, and then drop back. This was certainly not the running strategy I envisioned when I set the challenge with Vic back in May! It was supposed to be a really triumphal, end of maternity leave, look how super fit I am despite having a baby 10 months ago moment.
If I think hard enough, I feel like there's a lesson in here somewhere...there's definitely something about hubris, possibly something about not overdoing it so soon after pregnancy (although actually I had this tendon problem in 2014, well before getting pregnant! so I'm not convinced it's related. It's probably due to my posture or gait in some really boring way), and if I want to look on the bright side, something about perseverance and how it's important to complete the challenge even in the face of obstacles. Well, I will do my best.
Modelling my half-marathon outfit on Monday! I walk/jogged all the way to the Blackbird Bakery where I ate a bakewell tart...oops.
Over the last month, while I haven't done any running, I have continued with my regime of lots of walking with an 8.6 kilo baby on my back/front, and lots of cycling of the super heavy Bakfiets bike laden down with said baby. The Bakfiets is super for transporting Angel to and from nursery, which I have now started doing as she's settling in. It's not so super for cycling up hills, but as we live at the bottom of a hill (Telegraph Hill) and there is quite a lot of desirable/essential stuff at the top of the hill (Telegraph Hill play club; the Hill Station cafe; my place of work; Hilly Fields park; the Horniman museum (up multiple additional hills)) I seem to end up doing so quite a lot. So I think I've maintained a certain level of fitness. I'm not anticipating a heart attack, at least.
Settling Angel into nursery has been a real emotional rollercoaster. Actually, a rollercoaster goes up AND down whereas this has been fairly consistently a negative feeling so more of an emotional skydive. However, I really love our nursery - the staff, the manager, the room, the toys, the garden, the location - and I do honestly think Angel is happy there. It's just hard to judge because as soon as I enter with her, or arrive to take her away, her response is to burst into massive, angry, confused, heartbroken sobs in anticipation/memory of our separation. They tell me she's doing fine when I'm not there. I suppose the ability to be ok with both mummy AND nursery at the same time is something she'll grow into (hopefully).
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