in it but not to win it

Hello blog, have you missed me?

June starts tomorrow and with it Juneathon. Given a fair and following wind that should mean I will be running each and every of the next thirty days, logging my miles, blogging and blog-reading. That is the plan, and here are the excuses - best to get them out of the way early and before I forget. For anyone who followed me in Janathon, please do not expect more of the same. Yes, I know it is not about winning but about the camaraderie and the experience, but I did, for a while, think I was in with a shout back in January. That was until Gary handed me a lesson is mileage and, despite the best hunting instincts of the bunch of killer pumas I released into the Surrey-Hampshire wilderness, he managed to run to the moon and back, and good on him.

This time around things are a little different for me. My second daughter is going to be three weeks old tomorrow and my wife and I have decided now is right to pack up the house ready to sell it (we need a bigger one for the bigger family.) Our master bedroom has been re-plastered and is unusable, so I'm sleeping on the floor of our two year old Alex's room while Sal and Harry have moved out to a friends spare room. I have the slowest developing man-flu known to this man which has me coughing green chunks each morning while remaining OK for most of the day. I quit my job and then sort of unquit it.

Having decided not to run the Gold Coast Marathon in July for all of the above reasons (and some) I have sort of lost the running mojo and have had a wee bit more beer than I should have over the last month. Oh yes, and I cut a large scaly chunk of hard skin from my left little toe this evening, just for good measure. And Sal is not exactly over the moon about me doing this despite my insistence that I'll not be throwing down any big numbers, just having a bit of fun. For a change.

But set against that, I have returned to my blog, and that is a good thing. I ran about 9km yesterday and another 10km today, also a good thing and probably the reason I got the blister under my scabby toe. But the run felt OK. And, of course, it is winter in these parts, so I have flash floods and storm-force winds to contend with - which I don't mind - and not the searing temperatures and near-one-hundred-percent humidity of January - which I most certainly do.

So, I think I shall finish my lightweight-running-May with a glass of rose. Not because I particularly like rose, but because it is all I have in the house. Cheers, and seeya soon.