Tuesday 8 January 2008

Roll on Hot Cross Buns

Well another Christmas has been tidied away, a surplus of chocolates and mince pies have been hefted on to high shelf and I have solemnly promised that I will not be getting the step ladder out to reach them (starting tomorrow.....) I find it such an odd time of year, everyone determined to be jolly and love each other when really actually its perhaps the most fiercely difficult time.

Especially if one is allergic to Christmas Trees.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the Spring. I'm a Spring kind of person. I like days with blues skies but a chill in the air, that kind of crisp new day freshness that puts syncopation in your step and make you dream of the heat of the summer. Which is curious really because I don't like hot summers. I get terrible heat rash. Which is why I've always thought I'd like to live in Switzerland.

I have not made resolutions, except I have committed myself to running a half marathon. Me! Thirteen odd miles, the woman who gets puffed out climbing the step ladder to reach the chocs on the high shelf. OK I exaggerate a little. I do, or rather have run, quite regularly for the last year, but never further than six miles. Everyone assures me that running 13 of them will be like a piece of cake but I am fairly certain it won't be. I can probably say for sure right now that there will be no butter icing and liberal dollops of jam involved. I think there will be pain, probably, wobbly legs definitely and a great deal of coming last. But I don't mind if I come last as long as I finish it.

I don't really know why I want to do it, I'm not a sports kind of girl normally. Normally I'm a high heeled sequined detail kind of girl but I was once on the school cross country B team when I was about eleven and it wasn't my speed that won me the place nor even my stamina but simply my determination never to stop. And that is how I am going to attack the half marathon and indeed this year. I shall keep going and do my best.

After all, what else can anyone do?

9 comments:

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Good for you running a half marathon. I love the idea - usually after a few drinks - but have to admit that the only running I do is to the car if it rains.

Lucy Diamond said...

Good for you, Rowan. I too have a cupboard full of leftover mince pies and chocs and I am starting to wonder whether it would be better to actually put them in the bin than have them up there tempting me with their loveliness. Gawd January is such a grim month sometimes!

Rowan Coleman said...

It so bloody is, Lucy, but the whole throwing AWAY perfectly GOOD chocolate thing is a little too hard for me to bear. You way is the right way though....

Flowerpot said...

well done Rowan. But then if you can write books, you can run a half marathon. A different kind of stamina, I know, but the same principle!

Lane Mathias said...

I admire your willpower! I'm still wading through mince pies. I wouldn't want them to go off and be wasted:-)

Good luck with your marathon training!

CC Devine said...

Completing that half marathon will be so satisfying, Rowan. You'll do it and be chuffed with yourself.

I did a beginners' running programme last year and despite barely being able to run for a bus at the start it was very satisfying to be able to run a fair distance within a pretty short period of time. Admittedly it wasn't a half marathon but you've got the willpower to succeed!!

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

"I shall keep going and do my best. After all, what else can anyone do?"

Quite. And I'm looking forward to spring, too.

Rowan Coleman said...

thank you for you kinds words people. I have unfortunately just surrendered to the remaining after eights. On the bright side at least now they are all gone....right quick jog round the park!

Kate.Kingsley said...

Hi Rowan,

Well done on entering a half-mara! I ran a half about 18 months ago ~ and like you I rarely ran more than six miles prior to embarking upon the madness of the Great North Run training.

It's not a doddle, that much is true ~ but you'll do it (if I can, anyone can!) Which half is it that you're doing?