the F word

I realise it's been a while since my last post - I suppose I've just been too busy doing things to blog about them.

Admittedly I did have a little slack period after last week's Lost in South London fiasco but it wasn't all deliberate - honest! First of all, I had a weekend trip to Vienna. Regular readers will know that I am not averse to running in new cities, in fact I love a new route that combines sightseeing. However, Vienna was taken over by European radiologists conferring and confabulating, so we were consigned to a hotel out near the airport. This meant that the local scenery was not so wunderbar but the hotel did have a gym. So I packed some very lightweight running stuff, planning to fit in a quick treadmill session and keep my sightseeing to a more sociable even pace.
Unfortunately the hotel then tried to charge me 9 euros to use the treadmill and I had a Northern moment, refusing point blank to pay for something I actually hate (cf  several other posts re hatred of running on rubber belts while watching daytime tv) and regretting not bringing some cold weather kit so I could hit the ring road. Instead I decided to have a extra hour of Vienna tourist time and resolved to fit an extra session in this week when I got back to London.

And how glad am I that I did? While I would have loved to run round central Vienna (a gorgeous city, full of runners and blessed with perfect weather last weekend), I have had an absolute ball running round my local area this week.

Running is fun again! Fun, fun, fun!! (Beach Boys or Housemartins, take your pick for soundtrack to that exclamation)

It's been a combination of factors - perfect weather brought back from Vienna (cold, but bright sunshine), the later sunset giving me some spectacular warm glows over my evening runs, not having to dodge any foxes en route and a general buzz from the running itself

I have loved all 3 runs so far this week and plan to fit in 2 more before the close of the weekend, including a final long run. So what if I'm fat and slow, this running lark is fun! (Maybe not that bit of tonight's speedwork session where my lungs started to make a squeaking noise on the exhale but, hey, that stopped when I started jogging again).

If I can maintain this rekindled love of running until March 20, then NYC will be a blast. I am so excited about the race now, excited to see my running buddy again, excited to get out there and be cheered on by the world's most positive crowd.

Go, fresh air! Go, cancer! Go, Nylon!

LON