Hello darkness my old friend

Week 16 – 10 (very hilly) miles

I hate mornings. I particularly hate being woken up by an alarm whilst it is still pitch black outside and there is a 5 or (shudder) a 4 at the beginning of the time.  Admittedly, I don’t have to gingerly poke a finger outside of the covers to check the temperature before scrambling around for my fluffy slippers and dressing gown, but that’s just because it’s so warm that sleeping under the sheet is  only to stop the hungry mosquitoes nibbling my exposed flesh .  Due to ‘Operation Half Marathon’, at the moment for 5 days of the week that is my life – dragging my tired, aching body out of bed before dawn to make it ache even more. Then for the other 2 days of the week I am woken up by a human alarm poking their little fingers in my (happily closed) eyes and bellowing ‘MUMMY, WAKE UP! IT’S MORNING TIME!’. It is relentless. Of course I should be going to bed earlier to counter-balance the mega early starts, but that would be too sensible.

The super-early mornings are a necessity to enable me to get my training in, because although the wonderful thing about living in paradise is the sunshine, the not so lovely thing is the heat. In the middle of day it is like descending into the depths of the London Central Line tube in August and being met by a wall of sauna-heat and sweat. So, to avoid running at lunchtime only to come back to work (where there are no showers) a hot sweaty mess, I run in the mornings, in the pitch black, whilst everyone else in the family is dreaming of sugarplum fairies driving trucks (well, they are boys).

Luckily I am alone, so there is no-one to witness my dark mood as I run to wake up, my knees creaking and my high-vis glistening in the moonlight. Then, as my muscles warm up and I start to sweat (it may not be sauna weather but it can still feel like running through pea soup, even at dawn), a strange thing happens….I actually start to enjoy myself. I have to admit that there is something pretty awesome running by the light of the moon and the lapping waves. Also, running first thing means I am always starting on an ‘up’ and I don’t have to spend the day dreading – and coming up with a excuse not to – exercise.

This week’s long run was particularly brutal – a 10 miler – up and down some ridiculous hills. Again, I was surprised to find that halfway through I was actually enjoying myself … but then I had to walk up the biggest hill (practically a mountain in my opinion) and all I could think about was finishing. My legs ached for the rest of the day and sitting down too long caused me to seize up, but I did it – I RAN 10 MILES!!

I am now quietly confident that I will be able to complete the half marathon, but I will be delighted when the relentless training is over and I can sleep again, even for that precious 30 extra minutes in the morning. And I will get my lie-in back again on the weekends which I have had to reluctantly, but understandably hand over to husband during the running regime – but that’s a story for another time.