First Half-marathon!

Vienna, Sunday, it’s 6.40 am and I’m at my computer, looking at the marathon website, which also has a countdown clock to the start. What? An hour and 15 minutes? But it was supposed to start at 9. Did I forget to change my watches? ….It seems there’s a mistake on the website….

7.56 am and I join the queue to the toilet, which I get to after a mere 23 minutes. Then I find myself a place in the group of 30,072 runners, and off we go, eventually. It’s ok. It’s a beautiful day, and not too difficult to run among other people. I don’t have a sense of extreme competitiveness which could be my downfall in a smaller group of people – it’s ok for people to pass me.

At 4 km my feet start to hurt (predictably; I can now go and get them looked at next week – before I did not dare because I knew I would be told not to run). At about 7 km other km signs appear – 38 – 27 and I realise that the full marathon runners will pass this place again.

The feeding stations are there, and usually the place of a scrum, not least because I’m in the middle of the bulk of the pack and the water has been used faster than they could fill up. Luckily I have my own supply, though not in dinky little bottles around my waist like many other runners.

At about 12 km I find a tap on my shoulder and my son appearing beside me, before taking an action photo – wait for it. A bit later the first people start to walk and I increasingly overtake people, though others also overtake me. At 16-17 km there’s a bit of a climb, somewhere near Schoenbrunn Castle (not that I noticed that!), and then it’s home all along Marienhilfer Strasse. The last couple of kms I overtake lots of people and sprint into the goal to the sounds of ‘Buona Serra’ from Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’ which I can still sing.

Took 2:02:31; with an average speed of 5:48 per km almost consistently throughout the run, which was better than my estimated 6 minutes per km (the maps of Vilnius must be quite good!). 39^th in my age-and-gender group out of 174 (some woman, born the year after me, finished in 1:34. Incredible!).

It feels great!

Getting ready....

My feet were killing me while out shopping yesterday in Vienna. Only realised how much when I bought some new, larger and wider shoes and I could feel them spread out and go 'aaaaah'. On return to the hotel found a bleeding toe-nail. (A friend who has run a half-marathon lost all his toenails after it. Mine are now cut short....).

Did a short run this morning, about 34 minutes - it felt good! It's amazing how much ground you can cover when running - went in a loop up the road from my hotel, and back down and across to the opera and back. Feeling quietly confident - hurting feet or no hurting feet.

Short breastfeeds best for baby?

This BBC story suggests that rather than letting your baby feed until he or she falls asleep, and as often as he or she likes, it's better to give them 10 minutes on each side, at least 2 and ideally 3 hours apart. They are said to grow quicker (put on weight more quickly) that way.

Sounds like the old-fashioned approach to 'discipline them young'. Not sure what Mr Freud would have to say about that, in terms of oral satisfaction, meeting the child's needs and all that.

Is there really a need, these days, for children to put on weight 'more quickly'? Most breastfed children seem to grow quite satisfactorily. Mine grew to a perfectly normal adult height, being fed for how long and when he wanted (like, all the time!). I also think that despite this approach he did not turn out particularly spoilt, or self-centred....

Though I remember that whilst still in hospital I had to feed him secretly because the nurses (elderly, 30 years ago) did not approve of all that 'meeting your [distressed] child's demands'.

Last Sunday before Half-marathon....

Lost the previous weekend's training effort what with having a cough on the Saturday and a humdinger of a hangover on the Sunday. Midweek training in Tbilisi is possible but usually suffers from inertia....

This weekend it's my (and Lexi's) turn to set the hash; we decided to do my running route. I don't think she realised how long it was, nor did I, for walking. And in fact it's shorter than my running route.

Walked around it on Friday night (and my foot promptly started hurting again), then I ran a longer version yesterday in what seems like an unusually short hour and 9 minutes, this morning we set the hash (took us 2 hours 25 minutes, at a slow walking speed), and this afternoon will have to run it. If I have bad luck and the running group is well spread out, I'll have to run backwards and forwards like a sheepdog to make sure they don't get lost.

Perfect timing - it's Palm Sunday today and the run goes around about 100 churches all of whom are extremely busy. Let's hope that has calmed down this afternoon. The number of police on the road near the cathedral this morning suggests that Misha, the President, will also attend there. Keep praying we won't get there together. We've been ever so sensitive about not using too much flour, especially near churches. With a worldwide wheat shortage coming on, we don't need to be seen to waste flour.

But with all this I should be in fine form for next weekend. Might take a short run in Vienna on Friday morning just for the experience and fitness, and then it's onwards and upwards. That's apart from all that training shlepping round the shops of Vienna; may be one of my last opportunities for major shopping this year in Vienna, and especially for running gear...

My body's not happy!

In March I had done really well, preparing for the Half-marathon in Vienna, now 2 weeks and 1 day away, until I get a cold. That's after running with a painful foot though it still allowed me to do so.

Stopped running for 10 days to cure the cold; did really well, I thought, and out again last weekend, which seemed a bit hard work, but was ok. Well - on Thursday went out, seemed a right struggle, heartrate sky high (though I also cut a minute or more off one bit of the route) - and yesterday started coughing.

Had hoped to do a last good long run this weekend, but can't do that now. And from now on I need to rest the body anyway for the event....It's bugging me.

Messing with someone else's mind

In Friedrichshain, Berlin, an 80-year-old searches his wallet and drops it onto the rails of the S-Bahn (a type of train).

So naturally, he climbs down to retrieve it. An S-Bahn comes round the corner, sees the guy and slams on the brakes. Too late - he passes the point where the pensioner....was. He just managed to duck to the side.

The pensioner is unhurt. The S-Bahn driver has been admitted to hospital, suffering from severe shock.

I hope the pensioner feels bad, too.