41+1 to 42.2...

rainbow kirby

Me again. :pac:

Nearly 8 years since I started my first log, I'm back over here from the dark side because with a small person around it's a lot easier to fit in one discipline than three! (Swimming outdoors is still damn fun at this time of year though)

I also happen to have the Golden Ticket of a deferred ballot spot in the 2017 London Marathon.

The basics... I'm 32 :eek:, nursing mammy to an incredibly cute 3 month old boy, carrying about a stone and a half extra of baby weight and I've been running again for around 8 weeks. Living in north London and off work until Christmas so as good an opportunity as any to get going!

I'm building up quite slowly and did my first Parkrun post-baby on 18th June, time was absolute garbage (29 minutes and change) but things can only get better from there. The plan is to build to around half-marathon distance by the winter, and to use Higdon Novice 1 to get around London in April. I won't be anywhere near my PB but I'd like to think I could do it in 4:30. It will be my fourth marathon. Most weeks while I'm building up will probably be 3-4 runs, one gym session and one swim, with a bit of open water because I also have a place in Swim Serpentine in September.

Younganne

Best of luck with the training for London and the return to running.

rainbow kirby

Well Murphy's Law strikes again - first run on Monday evening after starting this log and thanks to an oul lad's inability to walk in a straight line I tripped and fell about 1.5km into my run. :rolleyes: Mangled my favourite capris in the process and have an incredibly ganky left knee now.

aquinn

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Well Murphy's Law strikes again - first run on Monday evening after starting this log and thanks to an oul lad's inability to walk in a straight line I tripped and fell about 1.5km into my run. :rolleyes: Mangled my favourite capris in the process and have an incredibly ganky left knee now.

Are you ok Is knee very swollen?

How's the little lad doing? Fair play for getting back running so soon.

chickey2

Hope the knee is alright!

Well done on getting back to the running. If you haven’t already, I'd definitely recommend seeing a physio who specialises in women to check you out. I had problems with my abdominal muscles post birth but luckily my physio sorted me out and it's not a problem now.

Best of luck with the training!

rainbow kirby

aquinn wrote: »

Are you ok Is knee very swollen?

How's the little lad doing? Fair play for getting back running so soon.

Little lad is fantastic - growing like a weed and a great little sleeper! Had his first trip back home last week and handled all the travel really well.

Knee is quite grazed but seems to be moving ok for squats in the gym. More annoying than anything else tbh! Strength session at the gym this evening, gotta get that core a bit sturdier.

Chickey - core still feels quite soft but abs seem to have come back in ok thankfully, if I do the finger test for diastasis recti there's almost no gap at 13 weeks postpartum.

chickey2

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Little lad is fantastic - growing like a weed and a great little sleeper! Had his first trip back home last week and handled all the travel really well.

Knee is quite grazed but seems to be moving ok for squats in the gym. More annoying than anything else tbh! Strength session at the gym this evening, gotta get that core a bit sturdier.

Chickey - core still feels quite soft but abs seem to have come back in ok thankfully, if I do the finger test for diastasis recti there's almost no gap at 13 weeks postpartum.

That sounds good alright, I had a 4 finger gap for ages

rainbow kirby

5.6km run this evening - Strava crapped itself a bit on timing though, I certainly didn't do the 5:12/km pace it says! Was breaking in new Kayanos too, my birthday present Felt pretty good throughout, longest run since the little fella arrived.

rainbow kirby

Sunday - very pleasant 6.9km run in Regents Park, 5:53/km average pace. Lovely day for it, nice and warm and felt good throughout.

rainbow kirby

Monday - baby swimming with the little fella in the afternoon and then grown up swimming once himself was home from work. 1,200m as 300 swim, 180 kick, 180 swim, 180 pull, 180 drills (2 * 30 catchup, 30 finger trail, 30 6-3-6), 180 swim. Felt like I could have gone further but still building relatively slowly.

aquinn

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Monday - baby swimming with the little fella in the afternoon and then grown up swimming once himself was home from work. 1,200m as 300 swim, 180 kick, 180 swim, 180 pull, 180 drills (2 * 30 catchup, 30 finger trail, 30 6-3-6), 180 swim. Felt like I could have gone further but still building relatively slowly.

Ah here, none of this tri stuff. You've only time to run, remember.

rainbow kirby

Tuesday - 4km run close to home, fairly time crunched trying to get it in before hubby's swimming lessons. 5:50ish/km pace.

Have missed the last 2 days - right boob got extremely pissed off with the little dude deciding to sleep the night most nights and I'm now on antibiotics. Grr.

rainbow kirby

Useless body is useless. Haven't run in a week and a half - got an infection in my boob and ended up on a week's course of pretty heavy-duty antibiotics and felt like ****e for the whole thing.

Got back exercising on Thursday with a trip to the London Aquatics Centre, plopped the little fella in the creche and had a very pleasant 40 minute swim.

Cycled on Friday - probably would have preferred a run but the bike was still in hubby's car because we'd been hiding them from a landlord inspection earlier in the week so a bit of a spin it was.

Weekend in Paris - too hot and humid to train, but loads of walking.

Going to be a sticky one when I head out this evening, forecast 29c today and 32 tomorrow which means I'm probably going to be feeding all day to keep the little one cool... :eek:

Chivito550

I hear there's a beer mile near you on Sunday week. Ideal opportunity to get back into the swing of things! :cool:

chickey2

Good luck this evening. Make sure you drink loads too so you have something left after the little guy has his fill!

rainbow kirby

A bit stop-start really here! Swim on Thursday thanks to the creche at the London Aquatics Centre, weekend off apart from one short run because we were at the athletics on Friday night and Saturday afternoon (I didn't see a lot of Saturday though due to trying to keep the little fella cool when it was absolutely roasting in the stadium).

Monday - swim @ Parliament Hill Lido, very busy but quite pleasant and it's always nice to be swimming outdoors in relatively warm water (23c after the heatwave!).
Tuesday - 4.7km run, lots of hills!
Wednesday - 4km run, 5.50/km average pace, felt pretty good overall but need to start going a bit further!

rainbow kirby

Thursday - rest day, C had his 4 month jabs and wanted to keep an eye on him.
Friday - comfortable lap of Regents Park outer circle, 4.6km @ 6:10/km average pace.
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - laps of the very pleasant Clissold Park - 6.1km @ 6:07/km average pace. Brought back a few memories because the last time we were there was Easter Sunday and we were trying to get things moving! Bit of a change now
Monday - 1,200m swim, weather was garbage so ended up indoors rather than the intended outdoor one.

rainbow kirby

So, August was a bit crap. Was ok for the first couple of weeks, then was back home with the little dude to visit family and friends and barely got any running done, then flew back to London into a heatwave and wasn't able to get out again until hubby got home from Rio because we don't have a running buggy yet. Little guy is 5 months now and he doesn't handle the heat well so kept him inside mostly on the hot days.

Last week was ok though, 4 runs (3 4-5k ish ones and a long run cut short by a heavy rain shower) and a swim at the London Aquatics Centre (1,400m in the training pool in 25m configuration... no fancy pool because Paralympics GB had the whole thing booked out). Did one outdoor core session on the outdoor gym equipment in a local park one of the days too. Going to chance a longer one this evening... we'll see how that goes!

rainbow kirby

...it went pretty well actually! Was briefly interrupted early on when I got chatting to a local mammy friend who had her adorable 6 month old with her, but chugged on anyway to Hampstead Heath and ended up getting 8.5km done on a very sticky evening. 6.21/km average pace so no great shakes but was nice to get a *slightly* longer one in

rainbow kirby

Got in another nice short run on the Tuesday - 4km ish at a relatively comfortable pace.

Rest day Wednesday and swim Thursday, out to the London Aquatics Centre, plonked the little one in the creche and had a lovely 1,400m swim in the competition pool.

Nothing Friday or Saturday - I meant to get down to Parkrun on Saturday but the weather was pure muck and I couldn't find the rain cover for the buggy. Other half was at a wedding in Ireland so little one had to come with me regardless.

Sunday I took the little fella down to Highbury Fields and jogged 3 laps of the Parkrun loop. Decided it was time for a proper running buggy as there was a little too much jittering and bouncing around in his Baby Jogger City Mini.

No workout yesterday - hospital appointment for little fella in south London took up most of the day.

Thanks to the wonders of Gumtree and a lovely Irish family who were decluttering we as of last night are the proud owners of a nearly new condition BOB Ironman

rainbow kirby

Yesterday's run was a total grind - absolutely roasting hot (peaked at 32 but was probably 28-29 at 6:15 when I started my run) and just felt like there were a load of small niggles going on. 4.8km @ 6:32/km pace anyway, it felt even slower.

rainbow kirby

Wednesday - buggy run, 4 laps of the Highbury Fields Parkrun loop. 27c when I started so a total sweat fest! 3.9km @ 6:38/km pace.

Thursday - outdoor swim at the ladies pond in Hampstead Heath, did around 900m before the lifeguards cleared the water because they heard thunder. Lovely swim apart from the six fairly substantial bites on my right arm and shoulder!

Friday - indoor swim, just over 1000m followed by 20 minutes having the craic with the little fella while hubby swam.

Saturday - Highbury Fields Parkrun with the buggy, 31:48. Sub 30 next time!

Sunday - long run, 11.1km @ 5:57/km pace. Felt good throughout even if some of the hills were a shock to the system! Last time I did 10km or more was the London Triathlon 2015...

rainbow kirby

Monday - rest day, a bit stiff from Sunday's efforts! :eek:

Tuesday - 5km buggy run at Regent's Park (6:38/km average pace) followed by Benugo's finest Earl Grey tea

rainbow kirby

Wednesday - 4.2km @ 6:02/km average pace. Felt good and it was a lovely warm evening for it

Thursday - lazy!

Friday - splashing around with my son at the pool and a short swim when hubby took over baby duty.

Saturday - Swim Serpentine in Hyde Park, 1 mile open water. Finished in 39:00 (yes, my :00 curse strikes again!). Enjoyed the event, well run and a good day out. Was a bit weird doing a proper event for the first time in ages but good to be back.

Sunday - Eton Dorney Triathlons, super sprint distance (400m swim, 10km bike, 2.5km run). Finished in 48:47 overall, 9:43 swim, 22:46 bike, 12:24 run. Considering I've cycled once all summer due to having a ganglion cyst on my left wrist that makes long cycles painful I'll take it I'm happy with the run and there's swim room for improvement. The fact that I've still got baby weight on doesn't help either, I was quite thankful that I could still get into my trisuit and wetsuit! :pac:

rainbow kirby

And I'm still crap at logging. Whoda thunk it :pac:

October was very up and down - we all got a stomach bug early in the month and it was more than a little rough for a while. Picked up a bit towards the end though - have done 2 sub-30 buggy Parkruns now, hopefully sub 29 next time. Also in honour of the day that was in it this morning I threw on my most recent DCM finisher t-shirt (2010!) and did my longest run since before getting knocked up, 13km. Felt really good to get back to doing a longer run

Have entered my next race too, I'm doing the Perivale 5 on 4 December. Planning to do the Caherdavin race on Dec 26 when visiting the inlaws over Christmas and then after that get the head down into marathon training. Most likely Reading half in March.

rainbow kirby

Have tried to chip away as much as possible over the last while - I've been getting in 4 runs and a swim most weeks, long run usually 10-12km. I did the Perivale 5 despite the fact that the small fella decided that being awake half the night before it would be the absolute craic, finished in 43:40. Was pretty happy with that and felt like I ran reasonably well. One of those nice club races where you get a lot for your unaffiliated £14 entry!

I set a buggy 5k PB of 28:34 about a week and a half ago at Highbury Fields, then the next week without the buggy ran 26:02, which is my second fastest Parkrun ever. It was really funny to see my son practically bouncing out the window of the car to see me on each lap! (Highbury Fields is a very short loop and is five and a half laps)

And so... Marathon training properly starts here. :eek:

18 week programmes start this week, I'm using Higdon novice 1 - taking me back to my days on the 2009 novices thread, but it does the job I want it to do which is to just get me around. Shifting a few runs around this week to allow for travelling but should get it all in - started yesterday by running the 6km home from work.

Murph_D

With your experience, would you not consider Novice 2? The extra mileage isn't huge but the addition of MP gives it a bit of edge which can be very motivational. Best of luck with it.

rainbow kirby

Honestly hadn't considered that as an option! I'll have a think about it

rainbow kirby

Week 1 down, pushed the long run to Monday as I was planning on doing the 10km race on St Stephens Day near the inlaws in Caherdavin. Despite quite a bit of Christmas Day red wine, hills on hills on hills and my son deciding that staying up until midnight would be the absolute craic, I had a decent run and got around in 53:32. I was expecting something in the 55-60 range so I'm delighted tbh!

rainbow kirby

And week 2... actually hit all my runs as planned in spite of travelling and all that fun stuff. Engaged in a bit of Parkrun tourism at the weekend - did Conwy parkrun (#17) in north Wales on Saturday morning, it was close enough to where we were breaking the journey after the ferry and before driving to London. Lovely out and back course along the river, very flat if a bit narrow in places. Got around in 27:16 which considering the Christmas indulgence, starting too far back and getting stuck behind a couple on a narrow section with two way traffic isn't too bad. Did Highbury Fields (#18) on New Year's Day as part of my long run, ran down, did it and ran back for a total of 12.3km - aim was 7 miles according to the programme so that's fine

Week 3... 2 short runs down, run commute this evening to pick up miniKirby from nursery and buggy long run at some point. Hubby is away for the weekend so it's either buggy or nothing!

Breaking in two new pairs of runners too - hubby got me a pair of Mizuno Wave Paradox for Christmas, my inner bargain hunter pounced on a pair of Brooks Ravenna in TKMaxx. All good so far - the Wave Paradox feel like the old Alchemy but less bricky/a bit more flexible.

rainbow kirby

Week 3 done. Run commute ended up being scuppered on Thursday when the creche called to say that my son had a fever and needed to be collected. That meant taking Friday as annual leave too. I ended up doing that run on Friday around Finsbury Park with the buggy, did 7km on a cold but sunny morning.

Hubby is in Ireland this weekend so Saturday morning meant buggy Parkrun plus whatever I decided to add on. Ended up doing 5 miles with the buggy - didn't push it because the hills yesterday had left my legs feeling a bit dead, got around in 30:16. Done now anyway

9 mile long run next week, this is where we start entering "here be dragons" territory! It will be the furthest I've gone since before miniKirby was a twinkle in our eyes.

rainbow kirby

Busy day today! In a middle finger to the tube strike, I ran a double commute. 6.6km each way from nursery to work. It remains to be seen how the legs feel about this in the morning...

rainbow kirby

Added another Parkrun to the list this weekend with a 1 second buggy PB (28:33) - that's 20 now, 40% of the way to my goal of 50 by the end of 2017.

Ended up having to cut the long run short though - I was doing it on Monday evening after horrendous weather on Sunday made it impossible to get it done and the stomach just wasn't right at all so I cut it off after 10km. On the flipside, I did discover that Highbury Fields is well lit at night and a relatively good place to extend a run commute home from work.

Still going to try for the 10 miler this weekend though - Sunday looks cold and crisp, ideal for a trot around Hampstead Heath

Applied for the Mizuno VIP lounge for Reading half for the craic, if nothing else it'll be somewhere for the hubby to crash out with the little lad while I'm running.

rainbow kirby

Well my falling habit strikes again. 2.5km into a run commute home I had a heavy fall and all my weight came down on my right knee, cutting it almost to the bone. An evening in A&E and 6 stitches later and it's not a pretty sight.

Ferris B

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Well my falling habit strikes again. 2.5km into a run commute home I had a heavy fall and all my weight came down on my right knee, cutting it almost to the bone. An evening in A&E and 6 stitches later and it's not a pretty sight.

Ouch.

Get well soon.

Younganne

speedy recovery J

aquinn

Sorry to read this, I hope you are ok. Nasty fall.

rainbow kirby

Still off the road. Stitches are still in because the fecking doctor's surgery wouldn't give me an appointment to have them out until Friday (5 days late for removal) despite the fact that I rang up the morning after I got them. Very little pain in the knee now but it's itching like hell. I've managed short cross-trainer and upper body strength workouts at the gym and long walks with our not-so-little-any-more dude in the carrier.

It's very difficult to see the marathon happening right now tbh. I'm too far behind training-wise, the absolute most I can do now really is make it to around a 25-28km long run in training and maybe do a planned run-walk in around 5:00-5:30 on the day. I can't even really have a good crack at Reading half as anything more than a long run to finish because that's only 7 weeks away.

F*ck.

rainbow kirby

Back running this morning, went to run to work but gave up after around 4k and got the bus in the rest of the way. Knee is absolutely fine but my head is all over the place. Some things are harder to fix than others...

rainbow kirby

Dragged myself back out anyway - 5km on Wednesday night very slowly, Parkrun on Saturday with the buggy in 30:29 (slooooooow) and then a 12.5km "long run" on Sunday. Feeling a bit better about things but still feels like there's a mountain like the north face of the Eiger ahead over the next few weeks. No issues with the knee thankfully - looks like it's going to be about a 5cm scar and there's no feeling for about 2cm below it, but no pain or tightness while running.

racheljev

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Back running this morning, went to run to work but gave up after around 4k and got the bus in the rest of the way. Knee is absolutely fine but my head is all over the place. Some things are harder to fix than others...

Catching up on your injury. After my shoulder dislocation, it took me a good while to trust myself on the road again. After the second dislocation and chin sticking-back-together, it took ages. Don't worry, the head will come back.

aquinn

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Dragged myself back out anyway - 5km on Wednesday night very slowly, Parkrun on Saturday with the buggy in 30:29 (slooooooow) and then a 12.5km "long run" on Sunday. Feeling a bit better about things but still feels like there's a mountain like the north face of the Eiger ahead over the next few weeks. No issues with the knee thankfully - looks like it's going to be about a 5cm scar and there's no feeling for about 2cm below it, but no pain or tightness while running.

Use bio oil twice daily when the skin has healed for the scar. It has worked wonders for me.

rainbow kirby

Got a few good buggy runs in last week while my son was off from nursery with a bug (a blast around Highbury Fields in the BOB helps burn a cold out, right?) and got a 16km long run in on Sunday. Felt pretty good throughout that run thankfully and really enjoyed it, and wasn't in absolute ribbons on Monday morning. Did a short recovery run last night too.

rainbow kirby

Pretty good week last week all in! Run commute to work on Wednesday, run commute home on Thursday, Highbury Fields Parkrun with the buggy on Saturday (#22, 29:50 ish, was taking it relatively handy) and long run on Sunday. I set out towards Regent's Park with intentions of doing around 20km and was taking it nice and handy, but managed to plan my second loop inside the park badly and added some distance. I was still around 2.5km from home when I hit the planned 20km and told myself "if you hit half marathon distance by Tufnell Park Cinema there will be some ice cream". Got there, was at 21.4km and just said "Feck it, we'll go home and pig out later". Got home and there was 22.4km logged in Strava, around 14 miles in old money and 2:25 elapsed (with two toilet breaks and a trip to Co-op for a water bottle).

Just under 45km total for the week, pretty satisfying all in! I'm absolutely delighted to get a run longer than half marathon distance done, to not be dead afterwards (I walked around a shopping centre pushing my son in his buggy on Sunday afternoon) and to be able to then run to work quite comfortably on Tuesday morning as well.

Planning to try for 22-25km again this weekend as my long run, I'm running home from work this evening with a few "penalty loops" of Highbury Fields to turn it into a medium-long one too. Usual Parkrun with the buggy on Saturday as well.

Maybe, just maybe - I might not completely **** this up?

rainbow kirby

Was having a pretty good week last week until the weekend, Sunday was a mess. ****e weather, a cold for both me and my son and *drumroll*... first post-baby time of the month 11 months on. Needless to say I felt like my long run about as much as I felt like being punched in the face repeatedly and the long run got skipped. Had been having a decent week up to that.

Got back out on Tuesday and the rest of the week was ok, usual run commutes with one extended a bit midweek. 6-9km at a time, just over 6 min/km pace, nothing much of interest there. Parkrun on Saturday morning, did Finsbury Park because there was a crane blocking the path at Highbury Fields and it would have been a nightmare to try and get around it five times with the buggy in a crowd. Ran my fastest buggy time at Finsbury Park of around 29:20 (usually 1-2 minutes slower than Highbury Fields with the buggy because of the hills) - and forgot my fecking barcode. Argh. Walked the legs off myself with the little fella in a baby carrier around Greenwich on Saturday afternoon after that. Was knackered on Sunday morning and could feel the run slipping away again, but forced myself out the door to Regent's Park just after lunchtime and ended up getting 24km/15 miles done, longest so far. Not going to lie, the coffee and cake in Coffee Republic afterwards were pretty epic

rainbow kirby

Usual midweek run commutes with one extended - 6.5km on Tuesday and Thursday and 10km on Wednesday evening. Absolutely beautiful day on Wednesday and let's just say it certainly seemed very much like "High"bury Fields when I was doing a couple of laps of it to stretch the run out! :pac:

Jogged around Parkrun (#24) with the buggy on Saturday morning, legs felt a bit dead but actually remembered my barcode this time! 31 and change, met up with a couple of girls from my antenatal group afterwards who were doing their first Parkrun (no buggies though).

Reading Half Marathon yesterday... decided to go out with the 2 hour pacers. That was a bit of a mistake, the hills in the early part of the course let me know that quite quickly! Settled a bit around the university at the 4-5 mile mark and felt good as the race approached the city centre. There's a big hill at around 8 miles and 8-10 felt like a bit of a dark night of the soul, I could feel a blister starting to come up on my right foot at about that stage as well so not a happy place to be at all! Once I got to around 11 and the straight road and I could see the Madejski in the distance it wasn't so bad, just keep on plugging on and I'd get there. Finished in a chip time of 2:05:25 in the end which I'm a bit disappointed in but the legs just didn't have it on the day. It's probably a combination of not recovering well due to baby wrangling, probably took a bit out of the legs by doing a buggy Parkrun the day before, and the 8-10kg spare tyre around my waist over the last time I did it. Either way, C has a new toy to play with in my finishers medal

Legs not entirely happy with me this morning so glad of a seat on the train to work!

rainbow kirby

Another decent enough week in the bag there.

Legs were in bits after Reading, so took Monday off and forced myself to run home from work on Tuesday. My legs felt like I was running on two wooden legs for most of it but they felt better on Wednesday for having gone for a run. Run commutes again on Wednesday and Thursday and another buggy Parkrun (#25) on Saturday. Ran it chatting to a girl who had been in my antenatal group a year ago, she has just started doing our local one. Got around in 29:22 anyway without feeling like it was that much of an effort.

Long run on Sunday - headed for Victoria Park this time, just for a bit of variety. Canal path was disturbingly crowded and I reamed some twat out of it for messing with his phone while he was wobbling along on a Boris bike on a narrow section and coming close to both hitting people and falling into the canal. Once I got to the 7.5km mark and was in the park it was grand though. Ended up doing just under 26k (16 miles) in the end, pace was very slow (over 3 hours for the lot) but that included queuing for the ladies twice along the way and stopping for a brief chat to hubby and to pick up some Lucozade.

Total of just under 51km for the week - I know it's low mileage for marathon training but I literally did not have time for more!

Next up... Oakley 20 for my longest long run. This is going to hurt :pac:

rainbow kirby

And another week down! Usual run commute on Tuesday, very laid back and some good music on. Unfortunately got called home early because my son had a fever, turned out to be a slightly productive one because tooth #7 made its appearance on Wednesday morning! Due to nursery rules I was stuck at home on the Wednesday, so took C out in the running buggy to Hampstead Heath. Did a hilly 8km ish and then took him to the one o'clock club to play with the toys. Run commute again on Thursday, pretty bog standard really.

Parkrun with the buggy on Saturday - didn't think I was really giving it a go but accidentally set a buggy PB of 28:28! (previous was 28:33) Probably not my brightest move considering what was coming on Sunday...

...Oakley 20. Tiny village in rural Bedfordshire with a 20 mile race that was pretty much all people doing it as their last long run for London or MK with one token lady training for Belfast. Two loop course, 12 miles for the first loop and the second one cuts off earlier for 8 miles. Rolling hills all the way - it never felt like more than a few minutes at a time were flat. Still got through it ok anyway even if it was a bit rough from 15-18... finished in 3:29:25 by chip and 3:30:58 by gun. Legs in bits afterwards but damn satisfying to get a 20 done - if someone had told me 2 months ago that I'd actually have gotten to a 20 in training I'd have laughed in their face.

And now my plague-bringing one year old has given me a cold. Lovely jubbly.

rainbow kirby

Welp. It's been a while. Not much to fill in the gap until race day - 3 week taper, plenty of easy running. Chipped another little bit off the buggy Parkrun PB (down to 28:15) and tried my best to get over the fact that the legs felt consistently a bit dead.

The week before the marathon was Fun. For very small values of fun. C got yet another bug, so a mix of working from home while baby wrangling and broken nights of sleep because he was waking up 4-5 times a night looking for mammy. He was supposed to get vaccinations on Friday but had been running a high temperature too recently to have them. He was a lot better by Saturday thankfully though.

And so... London Marathon 2017, 23rd April.

The butterflies hit bigtime shortly after I'd had my desperately craved pre marathon dinner of chicken Pad Thai from our local takeaway on Saturday evening, spent the night and early Sunday morning thinking "oh ****, what am I doing". 6am start on a Sunday is always fun, but the little fella had other ideas and made it a 5:20 start! Waking up with a big "playtime, mammy!" smile on his face was not what I'd planned. Left at 7 with him cuddling up to daddy - who managed to coax another 2.5 hours of sleep from him. Tube to Charing Cross where I joined the zombie march of other runners to the national rail platforms for the train to Blackheath and the blue start. I was feeling incredibly nervous at that stage. Met up with a few of the ladies from an FB group I'm on, had a good chat. Couple of visits to the female urinals (bloody great invention - queue moves way quicker than the one for the portaloos) and into pen 8 (of 9, I'm slow). Chat to a few randomers and then off, crossed the start line after around 11 minutes.

Knew very quickly that this wasn't going to be one of my brighter shining days on the road - felt a little bit off, my left shoulder was hurting from sleeping weirdly on it a couple of nights during the week and 6:30/km pace felt like more of an effort than I thought it would. Kept at it anyway, grabbed a sneaky bathroom break at mile 2 and chugged on. Cutty Sark was pretty cool at mile 6 ish and the crowds were absolutely amazing everywhere on the route. I was already fighting mentally an hour in - "I could just drop out now and head back" etc. Felt a little better once my first gel kicked in and decided to just enjoy it. Tower Bridge was cool and I was feeling a bit better from around 10-15 miles, it started to get really tough as we went east again towards Canary Wharf though and I walked for the first time around 18 miles. Just for a minute but it had to be done. Walked again a little around 20 miles and again just after 22, then gave myself a bit of a talking-to. "Not too far to go, Brian and Conor at mile 25, can still get sub-5 if I can keep this 7:30/km ish pace going and the fastest way to make the pain stop is to keep running". Stopped on Embankment just before mile 25 and 40km for baby cuddles and unleashing a string of expletives in my husband's general direction about how I felt at that point in time. Was passed by the 5 hour pacers from green start, which was a bit depressing but forced me to get a move on! Struggled my way around the last 2ish km from there, couldn't even put on a bit of a finish and had to dodge people taking selfies at the 385 Yards To Go sign. Crossed the line, when they put the medal on it felt like an absolute ton weight around my neck. Got my gear back and was getting dizzy, practically ripped into my bag for the pre-stashed can of real Coke. Chugged that, was highly disappointed by the gluten-free vegan protein ball in the goody bag, I needed the biggest dirtiest bar of chocolate on earth at that stage.

Overall: 4:53:09, 26299th overall, 8341st women, 4662nd AG (18-39).

Personal worst by 26 minutes.

I probably couldn't have asked for anything more from my body though - with an overweight BMI and having given birth 13 months ago, and having missed 3 weeks in January and February after slicing my knee open in a running fall I wasn't in a position that's in any way ideal to be running a marathon at all. I did the best with what I had - run commuting to work quite a bit to get mileage in midweek, Saturday Parkrun with the buggy and long runs on Sunday (daddy-son time!).

Will I go again? Not any time soon. I just can't justify putting in the effort and time that's needed at the moment to improve over marathon distance. Very long runs in London's sticky summer heat aren't massively appealing either. I'm going to concentrate on improving over 5k/10k over the next while, the Battersea Monday evening 5ks on the flattest course you can possibly imagine are starting up again soon so will give at least one a good rattle! Plenty of outdoor swimming over the summer too, the ladies pond is calling

Chivito550

Runners taking selfies? Tell me this is a joke.

Well done getting through comfortably enough in your first one back. I'm sure you'll want to do it again next year when dust settles.

In the mean time Beer Mile World Classic in August. It's back in London again. Guaranteed PB then head off to the Olympic Stadium as happy as a pig in sh1t.

That's what I plan to do anyway.

rainbow kirby

Absolutely 100% serious. A lot of people around 5 hours are just out for the craic and seeing several people stopping for selfies at a time at certain places isn't unusual.