Or, the week it went to sh*t
Quite difficult to know what to write this week, so I'll just ramble on and see where we get to. After a good night out on Friday catching up with former colleagues (thanks to Bryony, by the way, who became the inaugural JustGiving donor), Saturday was the work Christmas Party and more good fun enjoyed - although waking at 0745 after only going to bed at 0315 was unwelcome.
Monday morning was the usual post-event fun, with everyone's half-remembered snippets being compared and constructed into a vaguely accurate timeline. Pleasant day, so off I went for a run in the frosty brightness, 6.85 miles at 7:15 pace.
Then came the bad news; management team called onto a telecon and told we weren't the preferred bidder in the recompete of the contract that 90% of our office works on - over 400 people. 20 minutes later it was announced to everyone, and a lot of Christmases went flat. Obviously there's legal protection for staff, but also 3 months of uncertainty. On a personal level, I've spent a lot of time over the last 3 years working on two attempts to extend the contract, plus helping with the recompete, so there was a bit of personal capital involved too.
The remainder of the week, unsurprisingly, has been a bit of a challenge - although the cathartic benefits of mindless exercise have helped. Got a couple of long-ish runs in during which I concentrated solely on the run and the iPod, but got a big wake-up call in the "snap out of it" stakes as a result of my chosen charity.
My wife works for Marie Curie, doing overnight care visits for terminal patients. While the above was going on, she had back-to-back nights with a new patient: just a few years older than me, very fit (gym-in-the-spare-room fit) and active. Two months ago a vague soreness in the head led to a biopsy, a diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer and a period in intensive care. Now he's returned home with a life-expectancy measured in days, and a poor family struggling to come to terms with what's happened to their lives. Hearing about this tragic situation quickly helped me get a sense of perspective and also draw a couple of conclusions:
1) Yes, it's a cliché, but no-one knows what's round the corner
2) Yes, it's a cliché, but there is always someone in a much worse position than you think you are
3) That's what the big blue button over on the left is for. So Marie Curie can help devastated families spend their last days together in familiar surroundings
Anyway, moving on. While the rest of the country (including the office) has been enjoying the #uksnow phenomenon, we've only seen frost. The forecast for the long run today suggested snow half way round, so I broke my personal rule of "no more than 2 layers" with a compression base (Under Armour, naturally), t-shirt and jacket. The first signs of precipitation flecking the train window as I headed to Dumbarton suggested this was a wise move. Naturally, the clouds vanished, the sun came out and I overheated.
Another new route, and quite pleasant - escaping Dumbarton by the path up the Leven, passing Renton (as quickly as possible) and the Vale of Leven Football Club, reminding me just how little I miss refereeing and being shouted at by arseholes (on and off the pitch) of a Saturday afternoon. Continuing up to Balloch and through the Loch Lomond Shores outlet - which was amazingly quiet for the Saturday before Christmas - along the Loch at Duck Bay and turn left for Helensburgh at Arden.
At this point I looked at my watch for the first time and realised I'd done 9 miles in under 70 minutes, because I had not been concentrating on running slow (which I guess may be counter-intuitive to many). This was particularly relevant because 2.5 of the last 3 miles are almost entirely uphill, and my legs were naturally getting a bit tired. Just for fun, a sleety rain kicked in just as a got to the top of the first hill, so the last couple of miles were slightly tedious, but I kept plodding along and enjoyed the last half mile downhill from the skating pond and through the woods to the house.
Music is tricky this week. All-round good chap Scott has been adding to my collaborative Spotify playlist (it's over there on the left somewhere) and one of the songs he put on was Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros. I'd love to share the unbelievable (and actually quite moving) video with you, but EMI are one of those dumb record companies who don't let their official videos be embedded from YouTube. Quite why, I never understand, but instead I'll just provide the link Hoppipolla - Sigur Ros and encourage you to enjoy it for yourself.
The other thing is, and don't tell Scott, the song didn't actually make it to the iPod playlist becasue the tempo's not quite right. In the midst of another discussion on the song, the Chicane version (Poppiholla) got mentioned and investigations revealed the tempo was much more run-friendly, so it DID make it - and here it is
Anyhow, I feel like I've rabbited on for hours, so I will depart with only the observation that in the midst of everything, this was a personal best week for miles with 34, and I have now done over 200 since I got accepted at the start of October.
Week's summary: 4 runs, 34 miles; Long run 13 miles
Miles since acceptance: 211
