Silvesterlauf magic

Due to a last minute Christmas shopping trip to London this week, I am a little delayed in posting about my Big Run  - the Zuri Silvesterlauf - on Sunday. I am sure you have been waiting in suspense for the gory details ;) Well, I haven't actually got any! It was fantastic. In fact, it was quite magical, running in the dark around Zurich's streets, with the Christmas lights twinkling where-ever I looked. The run was lined with people and children shouting out our names (what a lovely idea to have your first name printed on the number pinned to your shirt) with their hands out waiting to high five runners. It gave me a real high. Ok, I took 1.06 to complete and was placed 612 - but I really didn't care! I did it! If you ever get the chance, do take part. (Don't forget you need to register in August)

www.silvesterlauf.ch

Scary Big Race Day has arrived

It's 8.30am.

I have just demolished a big brekkie of beans on toast topped with a fried egg in preparation for my Big Race Day (the Zurich Silvesterlauf my lovely hubbie entered me into after an ill-conceived tiddly bet back in August).

I gobbled up breakfast despite my nerves about my first ever grown-up ‘Race.’ I’m struggling to call it this as I hate the idea of entering a race I have absolutely no chance of winning. But equally, I cannot just call it a run as it is very different to the regular run I enjoy several times per week – a leisurely few km at a slower than snail’s pace around the local woods.

Talking of which, I awoke at 3.30am this morning with a humungous fear that the starting - pistol? - would go and I would be left behind in a cloud of dust by a giant group of runners going pretty slow (I am in the slowest group today) but still plenty faster than me. That was it – sleep was now evading my attempts and I was wide awake for the next 14 hours until my run started. Aaarggh. The day is stretching out before me like a sloth preparing for an 18 hour nap.

Rocking Winterthur Half Marathon

I love to run. But I don’t run in races. I’ve never understood running in a race I will never have the chance of winning. My hubbie seems to think this is a crazy notion, ie it’s not about the winning, it’s about the taking part (although we all knew that wasn't true when our parents told us as kids)

So, anyway, this leads us to spending lots of time at running races – hubbie running in them and me watching them. Which I actually don’t mind because I love the atmosphere at these events and so do my girls. We've been to a few in Switzerland now and they are always very well organised - and the majority of those taking part are pretty fit - even the seniors, So you may find yourself in a different overall position to that which you are accustomed to - and you may find yourself being overtaken by a surprising number of sprightly runners who are 20 years or more senior than you. But don't let that put you off, you'll still have a blast.

And last weekend’s Marathon/Half Marathon event in Winterthur certainly didn’t disappoint.

We arrived just under an hour before I expected Gourmet Gray and his brother Paul to finish and the atmosphere was buzzing. There was rock music playing loudly, the perfect musical accompaniment to any public, testosterone-led get together I feel. We squeezed into a space in the crowd of people lining the last 100 metres before the finish and started ‘hop, hop’ hop’ (ing) the runners as they headed for home. The lovely thing about this race was that every runner had his first name on the front of his vest so the audience could shout encouragement to each runner by name, which I think is a lovely touch.

The music went off and a band started playing just as there was a frisson in the crowd and the first Half Marathon runner came in (Dadi Fikru Abera at the amazing time of 1:06)

It was of course a little while later before daddy arrived but I was over the moon for him breaking his PB in under two hours. I love to witness the elation among the runners as they cross the line on a high and feel a little stab of something – who knows, perhaps one day I can also run a race without the need to win.

www.winterthur-marathon.ch

Details of Sunday's Winterthur Marathon competitors here.

It took a while but finally I've realised I am born to run

I had a fantastic run this morning. The sun was shining in a hazy kind of way. The patches of snow were glittering like diamonds in the sunlight and the mist was hanging around above the woods as I entered them. It all felt just right. And when I got home after my run I was buzzing. And that buzz has lasted the entire day.

I haven't always been a runner. It wasn't until I met Graham that I started running 15 years ago (aged 28) He was one of those crazy people who enter running races, triathlons, half-marathons, etc, etc. And one morning he asked me to go on a run with him. I laughed and laughed and laughed. I stuck the kettle on, lit a cigarette and said 'See you in an hour.' After that, he left it for a while but every so often would ask if I fancied going. And then one crisp, frosty, sunny, winter morning he asked me and I said: 'Why not?'

Despite all my efforts to leg it so I could get home for a cuppa, he forced me to go slow. Real slow. In fact, we weren't really running much faster than walking pace. But Gray knew what he was doing. I was hooked. Two years later, I gave up smoking (getting fitter makes you do healthier stuff, I swear) And when I had my two daughters and put on a lot of weight – 15kg! - and the running stopped for a while, I knew I would get my running shoes on again and I now have. And with the running, came the desire to be healthier and lose that weight once and for all.

And as the years have gone by, I have grown to appreciate more and more what an amazingly finely tuned, quality instrument we have been blessed with (our bodies) and I have realised that - as with any vintage bit of kit - it takes more maintenance as it grows older.

So I have stopped eating the leftovers, I have stopped cutting another few slices of cheese for me to nibble on when I do my daughters' sandwiches, I don't have to have pudding or an ice cream when they do. I have stopped all snacking and cut the wine down to a couple of glasses at the weekend. And now I have just 1 stone left to lose - and I've decided this will be the year.

Now, when the children go off to school I don't think about it – if I did, I would probably decide there is a host of other stuff I need to do more urgently – I pull on my trainers and go out the door. And I never, ever regret going for a run. I'm nowhere near Graham's type of runner – I do a relatively slow 30 – 40 minute run 3 or 4 times per week - and that's it. But how I love to run. And even more, how I love to see that weight going down when I step on the scales :)

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Boar?

The sun was shining, my heart was pumping excitedly and I was smiling as I took off for an early morning run today. And then as I reached the edge of the forest I heard it. The loud and unmistakeable screech of something large and tusked. Not the sound of a big bad wolf – but even worse (in my mind anyway) a big bad boar (as a Studio Ghibli fan I cannot ever forget the terror I felt of watching the boar god Nago as he terrorises a village in Princess Mononoke)

My legs turned to jelly and I faltered in my stride, wondering whether to turn right round and run back the way I had come. But I soldiered on, hopeful that it was coming from my left rather than my right which was the way I was intending to go.

Taking a deep breath I entered the shadows of the wood, the sunlight reduced to a magical dapple of sunbeam in the distant trees here and there. My breathing grew a little more rapid and my pace quickened. And as I ran into a patch of sunlight along the path, I saw – not the feared boar but two tiny deer which made my heart sing. They eyed me steadily before flicking their Bambi tails and disappearing in an instant into the trees.

And that’s why I love to run. Apart from the fitness, the blast of fresh spring air, the inevitable step (albeit tiny) to my summer bikini body, and that damn good feeling of incredibleness that lasts the entire day, it’s that feeling of being immersed in nature that calls to me.

Yes, I have got a lot more skittish about wild (and not so wild) animals as I’ve grown older – and not without reason as I’ve had a few episodes with people who can’t control their dogs and fields of cows in my running past. But it cannot halt the urge to take off to the great outdoors and do what I was born to do – run. Happy Easter and happy running!

The boar I thought would assault me from Princess Mononoke, photo credit here.

The not so fearful boar of reality - photo credit here.