Patience

The year is 1990. My 10 month old baby sister toddles anxiously behind the baby gate watching me fly past on the “big girl bike” I’d received for my 4th Birthday.

No training wheels for Bean.

The Silver Big Girl Bike lasted around 6 months until Dad reversed the Ford Escort over it. It was 4 years and one big move to America before I got my next bike. A pink and white girls bike. With streamers. And TRAINING WHEELS.

Turns out you CAN forget how to ride a bike… if you’re 8.

8 year old Impatient Bean DETESTED the training wheels because I knew I’d ridden without them. There were tears. And tantrums (I know. Some things NEVER change…) and when they came off there were scrapes and bits of driveway in my knees and elbows. I think those were my first ever FML moments.

Nowadays, my lack of patience has spread across the athletic board. You may remember my recent “How to use cleats” escapade with The Other Half who’s off the wall teaching technique would have been frowned upon by even the most evil cane-wielding 1950’s school teacher. “I’M TRYING TO TEACH YOU TO REACT AND ACT EVASIVELY” …. I’ll let you all in on a secret – you can’t train someone to react quickly by cycling at them and crashing into them. They land in dog shit and cry in front of the kids on the swings. And then become chronically phobic of cleats. And bikes. And dog shit. And kids.

Of course, no one likes to be shit. Myself especially. I want to be awesome immediately. The day after Marathon, I cried when someone trotted past my car in their 2014 finishers tee and I couldn’t even stand myself up. I literally wanted to run before I could walk.

Now. I’m not saying I’m not awesome at some stuff. I’m very skilled at The Sitting and The Watching of Telly and Sleeping and Beer Drinking and Chat. And I am pretty good at The Day Job. But. Sometimes things (running) just don’t come naturally. Especially to a long-term sofa dweller like me.

And I’m only really now beginning to learn that this is actually ok.

My recent and slow comeback to running has been pot-holed with painful setbacks and the kind of stupidity that makes you hate yourself.

“Oh my knee hurts, oh I’ll just keep running and maybe if I go a little faster it will realise it’s actually fine and oh no it’s worse”

Yeah.

Also, I have some lovely friends who give me amazing advice. Experienced advice. That I often ignore. Not on purpose, because I’m not a total dick. It’s just that obviously, I know better.

Ahem. (Incidentally, if you’re reading this and thinking “You bitch. I gave you advice…” then don’t sweat it. I usually learn the hard way and you get to be all smug and correct and stuff)

To conclude: I’ve decided that I cannot learn patience. I am instead learning how to understand that, if I can’t be patient, I have to deal with the ensuing fallout. And what is worse? Giving myself a couple of days rest or getting the fuck back out there and ruining my chances of improving?

Exactly.

MoRunning, Mo Problems

Uh oh. Here she goes. Yet more moaning about running.

WRONG. You wish. This is a ANOTHER POSITIVE BLOG ABOUT RUNNING. While the title suggests otherwise, that is actually just because I found it really funny. No, you shut up.

Just after I got the all-clear from PhysioDan to start running again in July, I registered for the Edinburgh MoRunning 10k. Ambitious? Yes. Stupid? Probably.

As part of the whole Movember thing, all proceeds go to Prostate Cancer UK. It’s a brilliant event and a very deserving charity. This year I even managed to convince Sean (future bro in law and Cancer survivor at 24) to enter. He’d shaved an epic tasche for the event.

Pre-race pic….

(He’s the one not wearing pink)

Sean, being a seasoned pro* (*lucky sod who just happens to be a very good runner) was set on a sub 60min and was as excited as me! It was really lovely to have a running buddy along for the occasion.

As a trained Marathoner, I couldn’t help but sit in awe at his pre race nutrition strategy: 2 bananas (barely chewed) and a giant hot chocolate from Starbucks. With cream. His efforts put my porridge and mint tea to shame. “Ha ha” I thought. “You’ll see that again on The Hill…”

Upon my gung-ho “it’ll be FINE” entry back in sunny July, I set the goal of sub 1hr. Equally ambitious. Equally stupid.
Or a PB. Sub 67 minutes. Less stupid. Still as ambitious.

I had to leave those dreams behind this week when mid Monday night 5k, my fabulously reliable and not at all annoying left knee (Medial Ligament. The bastard) decided otherwise. “Fuck you. No PB. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT”

I rested all week. Avoided bike which can sometimes help and sometimes hinder (remember how I don’t hold back very easily? Yeah…) and my mummy surprised me at work with my dad in tow on Friday and managed to K-Tape my knee in my office. Win.

With OH loaded like a pack horse with bags and coats, we set off for the start line.

I referred previously to the warning given to Sean regarding The Hill: The route consists of the roads up and around Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. You climb around 400ft in the first 2.5k. And on the 10k you do two laps. Brutal both physically and mentally.

Last year, I casually ignored warnings of The Hill from the other runners. Boy did I regret that. Having shot off the line (like an absolute fud) I quickly learnt of this Hill and its debilitating and mortifying effects on the human body and up-chuck reflux.

This year I kept that delightfully horrifying thought in the back of my head and managed to keep running the whole way up the first time. Slowly, but no vomiting.

However…..

Because I hung back a bit at the start so as not to be immediately swamped by pros, I got stuck in traffic. Absolutely nothing against a fellow Plodder, (I’m still a 10-11 minute miler) But seriously. 5 of you lined up across the road so no one can pass? Annoying. Once I eventually hit the flat section by the wee pond (small – not a pond of pee, my non-Scottish pals) at the top of the hill, I almost twisted my ankle having to swerve suddenly to avoid a runner who had come to an abrupt stop, not due to injury, no….. Because she was fannying around with her phone holder as she wanted to take a fucking SELFIE. Now…. I’m cool with selfie-taking (You’ve all seen my Instagram… and we all love RunSelfieRepeat) But in the middle of a road packed with runners, 3k into a race? Don’t stand sodding still. Get out of our fucking way. I, along with several others who, having just come out of a brutal hill-climb and then had to make a quick and evasive manoeuvre, may have called a fellow runner a twat. Oops.

At about 3.5k you come to the 1.5k of downhill bliss. By this point I’d found Natalie. Fellow Maggie’s Centre marathon runner. Having been plagued with injury and loss of mojo since May, this was her first run since Edinburgh and she did brilliantly! Kept me chatting the whole way. Certainly helped the time fly by and was great to catch up with a pal.

We cruised through 5k at about 32 mins. Just below PB time but happy and feeling strong. I knew, however, that The Hill Take Two was looming. At about 6.5k I could give no more. I’d got passed the steepest part of the climb but my breathing wouldn’t regulate, I had horrible anxiety and I knew my HR was through the roof. We walked for around 500m and then set off again at a 6:30/km pace. Much better. The anxiety stuck with me till the end but happily, the rest of the run was without issue. The downhill was really fun. It’s quite steep at first and once over the line, my back was hurting quite a bit. (*makes mental note to start regular hill training*)

Chip time 1:04:57. A PB. delighted. I know I can work on improving that now as I head towards 2015’s goals.

Sean smashed it in 56mins. A brilliant time for a cracking runner and wonderful guy. Super proud. 2 years since his diagnosis and he’s kicking my ass already.

Fantastic weather was appreciated and, despite baggage, my OH managed to climb to the top of Arthur’s Seat (as in, the actual Cairn, Scottish pals) and back down within an hour to watch us finish 8 minutes apart. He should probably also get a medal because the bag weighed more than a car.

So a very happy Bean this evening. Knee has shut up, anxiety has gone and I’ve eaten half a box of pastries. Good Saturday.