New Way, New Life

[marathondan]

Not sure how to put this. But it seems I’m about to resign from running, and from the forum.

Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But not by much.

Regular readers of my diaries (both of you) will have no doubt noticed a recurring theme of job dissatisfaction cropping up from time to time. Well, as the half-time whistle sounds in the football match of my working life (the home side started brightly, but find themselves 2-0 down), it’s time to try a new tactic. 

As of September 1st, I will be embarking on a reckless mission to destroy my career, my family's financial security, and perhaps my own mental health. After a mere 20 years of thinking about it, I'm jacking in my job and retraining as a teacher. This is well-known as a stressful and long-hours pursuit, and I’ve spent the last couple of months pruning all non-essentials from my lifestyle. To date, one luxury remains: running. And it, too, is going to have to go. In the past I’ve successfully fitted it in around a normal job. But my working week will be going up by about 20 hours, if most accounts are to be believed. 

This is a tragedy for me, but it's a measure of how seriously I need to change my life. On the plus side, two reasons that I run are to combat the boredom of corporate life and the sedentary office environment. Both of these will hopefully be disappearing. 

I set my current #100m100d “challenge” to finish on August 31st. It stalled around day 50, and so far I haven’t bothered picking it up again. For the last week or so I’ve been getting my aerobic jollies from cycling to work, a pleasant 20 mile round trip on country lanes. It’s nice enough, but it lacks almost all of running’s magical qualities.

But in summary, after August I'm afraid I won't be appearing much on the forum. Who knows, I might manage to fit in a few miles in the school holidays, in which case I will definitely pop my head in. In fact, this whole post is perhaps a bit melodramatic, and the rumour of my demise (that I’m starting) might be exaggerated. But as foolhardy leaps into the unknown go, I reckon this one is right up there. So I suppose this post is just my way of sharing that with some extremely valued friends.