1 week on

It's been almost 1 week since the marathon, and the hardest thing has been not running.

Running a marathon is an odd thing, you train for it for a long tim gradually building up k's per week until you run out of training time. You stop a week or so before the event, putting your self through s period without the one thing thats been driving you for so long, it's consumed your every thought for so long.

This subject of intense focus leaves a huge hole in your life, it's only a week of tapering but t feels like a year, you start to doubt your ability to run, question your preparation, and commitment.

The week after the marathon is similar, last year I waited one week exactly, then I ran a 10k. I ended up bed ridden with flu like symptoms for 3 days after that. This year I have felt ready to run since the Tuesday after the marathon. But have held back, remembering last year, I have decided to wait....but only until Monday.

Mondays we (myself and the guys at work) usually run a 5k so I will run that and see how I go. If that's all good then it's a 10k on Tuesday and another on thursday, from there it's back into routine.

I miss running, I want to be running again.

It's weird when speaking to another runner, he was very sympathetic to my marathon time, pointing out that I hadn't done enough long runs, my total k's per week were too low etc. This was kind of odd, I didn't mind my time so much, it was long, yeah ok it could have been better but at the end of the day who cares if I did it in 5 hours or 4, the point is I ran my second marathon.

I would have liked to have run more and walked less, but at the same time I probably would have ran slower and done about the same time still I did what I could.

At the end of the day people will compare you with their experiences, this guy was an experienced marathoner who when running them didn't have kids. I have managed to fit in being daddy, uni, work and training for a marathon and if that means I run 5 hour marathons until the load lightens the I will keep running 5 hour marathons.

This whole experience has put a new spin on my running and kids that I haven't realized before. If I run too much on the weekends it takes time away from my kids, and too little and my running suffered. The trade off is I run when I can and on marathon day run slower times, for now. My kids are at an age when they get upset that I will be out for 3 hours on a tun, but I imagine as they grow up that will change.

I like to think that my daughter and son will be there with me one day running their first 5k, 10k and whatever distances after that they aspire to. But I would never make them run, only show them what I get from running and see if they decide to follow.

It's hard to predict if they will or won't, I think they will want to run, but if they don't I can only hope they don't spend as much of their lives being as fat and lazy as I have.