The rest of 2011 - between marathons

[marathondan]

Funny old world, isn't it? What bizarre lives we construct for ourselves. So many threads intertwining, one day one thread pulls hardest, the next it's another. We create these strange beasts to serve us - like a career, or this sprawling oddity we call "running" - and half the time the beast is driving the master rather than the other way round. I'm sure that people who appear to have it all worked out haven't really; they're just better at fooling everyone (including themselves). But I suppose the bewildering fog makes those moments of clarity and direction all the more satisfying.

While I can see that my annual marathon training is nowhere near a true obsession - see my current read, Robin Harvie's Why We Run, a tale of the 36-hour Spartathon ultra, for that - as a generally chilled out, take it or leave it, kind of guy it's about as intense as I get. By May, my brain is frazzled and motivation is at a low ebb. It would be great to keep on an even keel throughout the year, but then I wouldn't put so much into the marathon. So this boom / bust cycle seems the only way to go. Same goes for work, but that's another story, not for a runners' forum. Maybe the only solution is to run two marathons a year... Or perhaps I need a new challenge, and that triathlon would do the trick after all...

Talking of additional marathons, from next year the South of England will have another mass participation spring marathon. Looks good, so long as you don't mind the association with MK Dons...