It's been just short of a year since I last updated. This means it's been a year since we lost our little pal Bailly. Not a day has gone by when I don't think of him, or shed a tear. I still think it was so unfair that he had to lose his life at such a young age, in the manner with which he did, and not a day goes by when I don't have a moment of regret and guilt, wondering if I could've done something different to avoid the situation. However, I'm thankful that in the short few years we had him, he was loved, and we made some fantastic memories together.
A year is a long time to recap, so here goes....
After the disaster that was the Kielder Marathon, I swore I'd never do another marathon, ever. I've kept to my word, albeit by circumstance rather than, well, keeping to my word. I did enter three marathons this year, but injury, illness, and Bobby's work commitments got in the way and I ended up doing none. I hate DNS'ing, and I hate DNF'ing. Fortunately, the only DNF's I've had this year are a couple of parkruns where injury forced me to retire shortly into each. Luckily, with the nature of parkrun, only the people that finish are put down in the results, otherwise I think I may have hobbled around just to avoid those 3 horrible letters against my name.
I've managed a couple of races, iirc, a 10K which I jogged around in just under 55 mins, and a half marathon which I managed to run conservatively in just under 2 hours. I really enjoyed them both especially the half which was undoubtedly the hilliest half I've ever done (and I've ran a few of those).
I really should know by now that when Scottish race organisers describe their race routes as "slightly undulating with stunning scenery", it actually means, "mountainous, and if you get to the top in one piece without your eyes bleeding, you'll experience the stunning scenery." I never learn!
The race in question was the Stonehaven Half. It climbed straight away, quite steeply through the town, and then climbed some more through some country lanes for the next 5 miles. There was about a 3 mile section of 'slightly undulating' before it climbed again. Thankfully, the last mile was downhill/flat, so it was a nice finish. Good medal too, although as with all my medals, it's been shoved somewhere, probably the bin, and hasn't been seen since. I'd have preferred a t-shirt, or a buff.
I got injured shortly after Kielder, tore my calf, and therefore had a full 4 months off running. Tentative jogging started again in March and although the calf was far from healed, I could just about run on it. With a lot of stretching and yoga, it got better and I quickly got into a good groove of daily 10K running, working up to the aforementioned half. My times were coming down too and for the first time in about 9 months, I started to put in 2 or 3 decent (for me) parkruns. Then disaster stuck again and I got achilles tendonitis - same leg as the calf, and probably brought on by months of tightness. I initially took 3 months off but it didn't/hasn't improved. I'm currently jogging (very painfully) on it. I've had to go back to padded trainers, rather than my flats, to try and give it a bit of support.
In other news, we've adopted a kitten, Wee Dave aka Omelette. His owners moved and didn't take him with them. He started life as a she and is now a he. Never having cats before we didn't realise little boy cats don't have the same obvious dangly bits as little boy dogs. My girls and I have fallen in love with him, Bobby on the other hand, is harder to persuade, although lets him inside now. We used to have to smuggle him into the girls bedrooms, but now he's allowed in the living room. He's no bother and sleeps mostly.
Bobby decided a few months ago to leave the RAF after 22 years of service. He officially has another 8 years to go, but with the closure of Leuchars and imminent move to Lossie, and with our girls at a crucial point of their education, we decided now was as good a time as any. It's going to be a major life change for all of us, but one which we're excited about...ask us in a years time when we're living in a shop doorway if we feel the same, and you may get a different answer ;-)
Mentioning our girls has just reminded me that Chloe took her Standard Grades back in May. She seemed to breeze through them at the time and was totally confident and convinced she'd done enough to get a good set of grades. I knew she'd worked incredibly hard for them, albeit with a very laid back attitude, but I wasn't as convinced as she was, probably because of the blase approach. I'm ashamed to admit that I should have more faith in her because she got all credit grades and most of them were "ones". Extremely proud Mum moment! She's currently taking 5 highers, and is thriving on the increased workload. Abbey on the other hand, just sees School as an inconvenience and somewhere to catch up with her friends. They say you never get 2 kids the same, and how right they are!
Off on holiday this week - Florida again. Not being a fan of theme parks, I'll be chief bag carrier, and people watcher as usual. You definitely see the sights. We're going to try and do Clermont parkrun while we're out there....I'm more excited about that than anything else.
I'll endeavour to update more frequently in future!
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