marathonmummy

And so (having been thwarted in my attempts to get some decent running in by mud covered children and now a husband in bed with horrible tonsillitis) we’re off to France. When I get back it’ll be September, the children will be heading back to school and I’ll be getting serious about this running business. (Eek!) Have a lovely rest of August, everyone, and I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks.

I will be running this evening. I have my clothes in a neat pile, all ready to go. I’m taking the children for a long walk round – ah, no, hang on – and this is why I have trouble in the holidays. So I was about to say I’m taking them for a long walk round Stowe to wear them out, so they can come home tired and worn out. But oh no…I look out into the garden, and for some reason no.1 child, who is 9 and should know better, has covered no.3 child, who is 5 and gullible, with mud from head to toe. So now I have to decide: do I a) ignore the pile of (hideous, pre-holiday) ironing I was going to do in the next hour and bath the mudlark, then go for our walk later, meaning I need to iron tonight and won’t have time to run or b) cancel the walk, get the ironing done, and get my run in or c) hide in a dark cupboard till the summer holidays are over? Answers on a postcard please…

Oh, I’ve run miles and miles this week. So many that I think I’d better go and buy a new pair of trainers.

Ha ha. Oh, the summer holidays + 4 children + husband who works long hours + not feeling particularly like I want to get up and run alone around country roads round here right now = not much marathon training.

I had it in my head that our trip to France (in a week) would involve lots of early morning runs, but I’m beginning to think that I’m going to have to just deal with the reality of school holidays and get back on with training in a couple of weeks when they go back to school. In the grand scheme of things a couple of weeks isn’t that much, is it? Is it?! Eek. I’m treating this marathon like an essay at university and that is not good.

…I’d be at the starting gate of the marathon and not really moving very fast, wouldn’t I? It’s the summer holidays and I have four children at home, so please excuse the lack of running talk around here. I could bore you all with “wot we did on our holidays” but I’m not sure you really want to hear about rainy walks round the woods, our naughty chickens eating all our blueberry crop (and our potato plants and the tomato plants, whilst I’m grumbling), Legoland, rain, more rain, a little bit more rain and a distinct lack of the s word. Sun, that is, not anything ruder. Shall I show you some photos instead?

there’s mountains of washing to be sorted constantly…

and we’ve done lots of this

and thanks to some lovely people, I’ve already raised £90 for Heart Research on my JustGiving page!

More running talk soon, I promise.