running again..

4m at 7:10. ran after work, back home: off through Lewisham and up over Blackheath and straight back down through the village - then back through Lee and Manor House Gardens. just a short run to test the knee, and cross fingers it's come out just fine. this is great news - and such a relief. i'll probably try to get out most of the rest of the days this week - and it'd be better again if my running mate at work is also back to full fitness and can run too. hats off to those that run in the evening after working a full day. i find it quite the low point of the day - tired from work, needing dinner and winding down for the day. i'm pretty sure i'll always be better in the early morning or at lunchtime.

i think you know an injury has gone when you feel for it, and recognize it's still there, then realize that's not the right knee! that might be my future test.

thinking of adding panels to the blog for future races, best times at different distances. i wonder who all that would be for. probably nice for me to see, but only that - i know all the details. especially the PBs. they rattle around inside my head all the time. i think all you do when you get a new PB is think about how you are going to better that. now i've got a sub-3 marathon time, i'm cautious of thinking i will ever better it - not getting any younger! - but i do find myself straying into the thoughts of how i could shave more time off it with better training, better diet, better weight control, etc, etc.

my mother was a sprinter when she was younger - the 60yd dash, as it was then. i've no doubt she was really good. i don't think she won any big races, but i know she'd have committed to it and done her best. she helped my sprint training when i was trying to get better playing schoolboy rugby. i invited my parents to come down to Brighton for the marathon. they were keen to come and share the day - help out with the kids.. it was nice having that reassuring warmth around me on the day before - when i was going out of my mind with self-doubt and worry. we were off to the start early in the morning, so we didn't see anybody til the halfway point, where we agreed they'd be to shout us on. i almost missed them, they were further past the marker than i expected. when i saw them all calling, it seemed distant but close all at once. i felt great - better after a half than ever before (in fact, i was probably going a little too slow, but there's that could-have gone-faster attitude again..) - and seeing my parents, Polly and the kids all there for me made my heart swell some. i have to say i get terribly emotional in races. i think i realized that in the early races. when i finished in Paris last year, i cried when i saw Polly waiting for me in the repatriation area. when i finished in Brighton, it was quicker to get out and to them all. they had seen me come up the final straight, and knew where i was - having finished well up the field, there were fewer finishers around right then. i cried again when i saw them. my heart leapt up my throat. both my kids gave me huge hugs, and Polly held me as i recovered. then i got to give my mum a hug - and it felt so good to have her there. my dad too - he had spent hours with me in our long fields kicking a rugby ball back and forth.

having your family there when you excel yourself - do something that you've worked so hard at and are living the culmination of - is surely the best reward you can give yourself. i mean the medals are pretty gaudy and i've got enough t-shirts. seeing the people you love the most reflect back to you that happiness you know is there inside - because they know what it's taken.. well, that's a special thing.