Tha’s in reight bother this time, Squintani!!!

OK, quick one. Remember my parting comment in the post-Bristol Half entry? No, why would you. Well, here it is:

There you have it – in as small a nutshell as I can muster, what could quite possibly be my one and only Half Marathon-related post. After all, I swore to myself quite clearly that I would not do this again: box ticked, weight lost, fitness reached… I’ll carry on training, but I’m not running one of these again. And you can forget about their bigger brothers, an’all. You got that?

Er… yes, something went wrong with that. Let me bring you up to speed.

On Tuesday last week I signed up for the Bath Half. Nice city is Bath – nice and scenic. I will bore you with what prompted me to even look at it another time. For now, suffice to say that the timing seemed OK: the race takes place on March 3^rd, so 154 days after Bristol, which in turn was 164 days after I started running. If I got to the level of fitness that I did from my oversized self for Bristol, then presumably I can get myself into an equivalent status by early March? Sure, those last few miles will still hurt, but hey – all those miles and all those early rises will be worth it for the feeling of accomplishment, right?

So that was Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday…

…after a number of exchanges with Mazymixer, to whom I think I’m grateful (but I reserve the right to change my mind on that one over the coming months)…

…after sleeping on it a few nights (yes, more than one)…

…I signed up for a full marathon.

Gu on then, get all the groaning out of the way! Out you come with all your “I knew he would”s!

Yes, I’ve signed up for the Greater Manchester Marathon. It takes place on April 28. That’s 56 days after the Bath Half and two weeks before Sheffield Half, for which I’ve yet to sign up (entries not yet open). 56 from half to full sounds manageable, 14 from full to half… er, I’ll get back to you on that one.

I obviously have plenty to add on this topic. Lots of whys to raise, some of them even ones I can answer. And I’ll get back to you on those: really, I will. For now, I just wanted to come out and let you know. If nowt else, it should reassure you that this blog really will carry on, with ample opportunity for me to waffle on about new challenges. Because I have to prove myself all over again, folks. A fortnight ago I proved I could run a 10k, although to some extent I’d reassured myself of that some months prior when 10km became my default training distance. Then a week later (or ago, depending on perspective) I proved I could run a half marathon and in a decent time, too. That was a major milestone, and one that, upon completion, genuinely did not leave me wanting more: not another half, not a full. Those feelings (of desire, curiosity, challenge, insanity) kicked in a day or so later. Then Simon talked me into believing I could do it, without applying any pressure (seriously), and helped me select the most suitable one… and yes, before you know it I’d signed up. And how do I feel now?

Petrified. Terrified. Excited. But I’ll tell you more about it another time.