amazingly, i did it! it took me at least 6 months of training, but i eventually ran two 10k races; the spar ladies race and the soweto 10k the 2nd of november. however, less than a week after the latter, my long-time BF and i broke up and he moved out. you think i would have gone and tried  running off the blues, but instead, i stayed put and wallowed! no gym, no track, nothing. the fact that i lost my appetite and a good few kilos i’d been trying forever to shed, didn’t help to motivate me either.

3 awful months and some not very successful attempts at on-line dating later (maybe more about that some other time), the BF  and i realized that we were total failures at remaining exes. we decided we were very happy to become quitters at quitting each other.

in our time apart, he’d bought himself a mountain bike and and joined a cycling club, so once we re-united, we started doing some spinning classes at the gym. i though, have the kind of body-type which requires but one spinning class before my thighs start bulking up and i look capable of kick-starting a boeing,  and my butt, already obviously of saartjie baartman lineage, gets even bigger. tighter, more muscular and hoiked further up my back, but yes, bigger. so it looks like it might be a better idea to start running again.

i’ve done a few road/park runs over the past few weeks. half hour each, distance unknown, and i find it hard to believe that i’ve actually been quite excited by these runs. the BF rides his bike while i slog up and down hills in the park with the dogs roaming around and occasionally attempting to trip me up. everything still hurts, especially seeing that i’ve suffered some major back spasms this past month, but i think i’ll keep at it. yesterday i went back to the track for the first time since last october and ran 5k’s in just under 35 minutes. track running, though,  seems to require more tenacity and determination. maybe it has something to do with the fact that you keep running the same endless mobius strip loop and it feels like you could step off at any moment, whereas with road running you have a distinct start and finish point and if you don’t keep going, you don’t get home.

i thought i’d hung my running shoes up for good once i’d achieved my goal, but it seems i’d merely kicked them under the bed. i’ve blown off the dust bunnies and replaced them with good ole trail dirt!

ok, so maybe once a runner, always a runner? any other runners out there? what do you think?