Taper Time and Sad News

Wednesday 23 March
I met Ewen a little earlier in the PH carpark so that we could run a few kms before joining Andy for the majority of the run. Chris only ran a very short distance with us as he had to leave early for a meeting. Mr B and I had just returned from Sydney where, on Tuesday, we went to see Dr Zhivago the musical. It was absolutely amazing and we both loved it. We saw the movie in the 1970s so the story came back to us - just wonderful. We also caught up with our younger daughter and her partner for a yummy Spanish meal in the evening.

The boys and I ran our usual war memorial loop running out a little further to make extra distance. It was a pleasant run with lots of good conversation and we did spot a large hare as we ran through the cemetary at St Johns Church in Reid. He disappeared among the tombstones very quickly.
Total distance: 16km
Time taken: 1:44:51
Average pace per km: 6:33

Thursday 24 March

It was a much cooler day today and there was a bitter head wind when I headed out for my run in the early afternoon. I was on roster at track in the evening so needed to get my run in first. I ran from home and included 3 x 10 min tempo runs with 3 minute jogs between. Strangely enough my 11th km was my fastest. Going out I battled a head wind which turned with me. However, for the last few kms the wind finally dropped and I felt much better and faster.

Total distance: 11km

Time taken: 1:04:43
Average pace per km: 5:52
Calories burned: 643

Friday 25 March

I started the day early with a Body Balance class before heading into The Runners Shop to buy some more shoes for the marathon. They are the same sort I'm running in already so I will just run in the new ones tomorrow and try to keep them clean for the big day. There are now just over two weeks until the race and the taper began this week which meant a rest day from running on Tuesday and today. Tomorrow my long run will be 8km shorter than last week!

Postscript

I met up with Jen for a long coffee this morning. Her baby was due two days ago so she is jumping out of her skin (not literally of course but it is exciting)!

CJ had bad news from the physio today. Her hamstring is torn and it no longer looks as though she will be running the marathon this year. She damaged it during the half marathon a few weeks ago. She is quite naturally devastated.

I also had extremely sad news today from a close friend who we caught up with while in NZ a couple of weeks ago. We have been friends for many many years and her 30 year old only son (just a year younger than my older daughter) fell off his horse two days ago and was badly injured. It was a head injury even though he was wearing a helmet and he is now on life support. The prognosis is not good. His parents have to make an extremely difficult decision in the next day or two.

We wait for news with heavy hearts and know that sometimes life can be very sad and cruel.