Commitment

This is exciting, you're going to like this.

I bought a Garmin! My very own one! I gave Sally's back to her, she needs it for her real clients. And I handed Nigel his one back too (I'd borrowed the heart monitor). I never really liked the 305 because it is a bit clumpy and not very girly, and I got Garmin Envy of Dave's, which is a Forerunner 405, so I decided I'd buy one. While I was still debating buying one, Nic asked me why I wanted it, and what it would achieve that I couldn't do without. "It'll make me go running," I said. She raised her eyebrows in a way only Nic can do, and said "There's your answer then".

I had a great indecision about whether to get one new or second hand. I thought if there was a good mark-down I'd go for a second hand one, but then on balance thought, I'd be safer with a new one, because if it went wrong, I'd want the warantee. But then I found that there are very few second hand ones anyway. There simply weren't more than 3-4 on Amazon Marketplace, and they were only £40 less than the new ones. Some of them even had parts missing. This was the same on ebay. I put a cursory bid on one, and lost it. It went for £124. It made me think that for there to be so few available second hand, it must be quite a good product.

THEN. People, you are going to learn things from today's lesson! Then I learned about a new thing. It was Heather that put me onto it. "Have you heard about the Sniping Tool?" She asked me. I hadn't. It puts a bid in for you automatically, in the last 10 seconds of the auction. This is genius. It isn't really unfair, either, because if someone has put a really high bid on the auction before you, theirs is going to win; it's essentially like putting a sealed bid in. However, if you put a sealed bid in at a price you are willing to pay, it will come in ten seconds before the end of the auction, and steal the bid by the nominal price from the highest bidder. This finally makes sense. Everyone who has beaten me, at odd hours in the night, by 20p in the last few seconds... they weren't sitting watching it. They were just using something like that. Brilliant. Don't tell anyone, right, we don't want everyone using it.

So, I won my Garmin. There was still a slight worry that it would be crummy, but when it arrived, it was BETTER than it said. It was brand new. All in bags and packages. Instructions in French, but hey, that's what the internet's for, right? And it was charged, and all set up ready to go, anyway. Very happy. It had its inaugural run with Chris - moustachioed Chris. It should have been with Dave, but he couldn't make it. We have a little getting used to each other, the Garmin and me, but it was good to have, you know, someone else in charge again. Heart rate going, and that.

Oh, and while I was waiting on that, I got a swim in. After all, there's hills to think about. I've got to get the cross-training in.

Moral Support

I shall now say a few words about Moral Support. I think this is pretty important. I get some from the Running Crowd at work, and in fairness, plenty from other friends who give words of encouragement, in the office, through facebook, and so on. However, I'd like to acknowledge that people coming with me is a proper treat. I have learned to enjoy some music, but the truth is, I still find running by myself a tad boring, music or not. I still enjoy finding out which music peps me up a little, and which I run a little steadier to, shall we say. And I love the irony of jogging to "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll", my favourite line of which is now "Here's my tailor, he's called Simon, I know it's going to fit".

So anyway, after my couple of short slow(ish) runs, I decided to head out for the rowing lake. I went to recruit the usual suspects, but they refused to come. So I went out alone, AND it was raining. I was impressed, I hope you are too. Furthermore, I remembered to bring spare pants with me. This is a minor detail, but I have been running in the rain before, and sitting in the office all afternoon in wet pants isn't good. I hope I got away without the telltale water mark on my clothing that time, although I can't remember (in all honestly, I assume that because I can't remember, I did get away with it, because the scars of embarrassment tend to stay with me for longer than that). Anyway, that aside, I saw a couple of other known runners on the route, JNCC Richard, and Stuart. In fact, I didn't recognise Stuart until I was about nose to nose with him, because I had rain all over my glasses, and I wasn't expecting to see him. The words "hello" didn't start to form on my lips until well after he'd gone. Fortunately, I was able to relay this to him subsequently by telling Chris later in the office (although in fairness, i have no idea if she passed it on).

I managed to post this run onto Facebook, which seemed to have mightily impressed Erica, who thought that for day one of my running program, 5.33 miles (even on the flat) was a good score. It seemed unnecessarily slow to me. We established that Erica is aiming to finish the half marathon alive, whereas I am aiming to finish it in sub-2 hours. This will entail quite a bit of hard work on my part, because at the moment I'm not feeling I could complete the Great Eastern Run in sub-2 hours, never mind a feckin' great hill like that.

Still, in a spirit of achievement, I went on (apparently) - no, actually, I do remember this - to run 8.12 miles that weekend. I ran up the canal to the Minnellium Bridge (as I like to call it), and back round Stanground. It's a route I'm finding increasingly boring, although this wasn't why I only made it round in 10:51 minute miles. I simply cannot believe that I ran the half marathon in 9.5 - 9 minute miles any more. It seems like an unachievable dream.

By the 23 Jan, I managed to muster some more Moral Support in the office. Actually, I can tell this, just by dint of the fact I was running on the 23rd, as Runkeeper tells me (fortunately not out loud) that the Millenium Bridge run was on the 22 Jan. The only reason I'd have gone running on 23rd would be Dave (yes, you remember, that's Running Dave) insisting on it. This also tallies with me doing 10 min 36 miles, as he also seems to coincide with the pace being kept up. In all honesty, THIS is what I need my colleagues for.

Miracles

The fact of the matter is, I have given a lot of thought to what I'll write in the blog, while running. And in all honesty, I haven't done a lot of it, so I don't want you to "run away" with the notion that you are missing out. But you have. I've deprived you of , ooh, I'd say seven, running adventures.

So, "Miracles" didn't have a lot going for it. Sometimes I only think of the title, then wonder what I'd actually write. The miracles thing was when I started running again in, ooh, let me consult Runkeeper (AKA the Talking Lady): 13 January. But I decided I could double up for the run on 16th January. They were both shorties, you see. And I didn't really feel up to much, but I got on and did them. I got out there. I was running by myself, and I did some short circuits, in what the locals call "the Fengate Run", which is 2.65 miles. I actually ran a bit further on the first day (3.86 miles), by extending it up the canal, but apparently saw the error in my ways the second day, and curtailed it a bit.

The reason why I was going to call it miracles, my thinking was, that it may not be very impressive, but I was in plenty of time for the half-marathon, and I didn't need miracles, I just needed a proper training program. And I needed to stick with it.

Ha ha ha. That's funny. I do need a miracle, I don't have Sally any more. I'm flying solo. (although in fairness, I asked her if I can still pester her, and she agreed. She even said I can come out to Stilton and go running with her. This was at my request, because I'm very scared about the whole hill thing. More on which, later).