Haiku for the week

Repeating cycles

Sometimes reassure, refresh;

Sometimes wear you down.

I finally managed a full practice marathon at the start of this week, 8 laps around the nearby lakes.

Well, I finished - that's something. Especially considering I've been suffering badly with allergies recently, so my breathing wasn't as easy as I would wish. And, amazingly, I didn't feel too awful the next day - although I would not have liked to have attempted another long run. But at least I didn't injure myself. And my pace - at least, at first - was pretty good, not too far short of what I was running 5 or 6 years ago: just inside 2 hours for the half-distance. But man, the second half was much slower; and I hit 'the wall' bad at around 18 miles. It was a real struggle to get to the end after that.

Still, quite a promising result, all in all. I'm still 5 weeks away from the marathon I had planned to run in Shanghai (but am now boycotting), and 9 weeks away from the one I still hope to run in Xiamen (if they ever get their act together about registrations!); so, I still have time to build up strength and stamina some more, get myself more fully prepared.

Ah, but.... I just rashly entered myself in a race next week. That.... that is going to be PAINFUL. Wish me luck.