Hi Suzie
Great to hear from you, and thanks for what you said. It's funny, but I don't see it as anything to do with strength or courage or anything like that. I just need to have a goal to help keep me chugging along. It seems very exciting to be signing up for another marathon. I said something in the report about the marathon being a puzzle (picked up by Sweder), and I think this is half the attraction as well as half the frustration. It's like some computer game that you're trying to crack. You lose all your lives and the game is over, but you want to go back and start from the beginning again to see if you can get it right this time.
Another thing that you've inadvertently made me realise is that I don't feel any great emotional hit this time, like we sometimes do after a marathon - a feeling of mental exhaustion that can last for months. That's usually the feeling that prevents us from signing up to anything else for a while - and was the problem that Andy (SP) had when sensibly deciding to defer London till 2006. Obviously I felt pretty drained immediately after Hamburg, but I didn't feel that great sense of loss.
Perhaps it's related to the slight sense of disappointment I felt with the way the race went after a good start, and after all those good months of training. As I said, I don't feel bad about the race, but just a faint sense of anti-climax, as though something was nearly but not quite fulfilled. Maybe that's something else that is urging me to get onto the next one without too much delay.
But above all, I've decided to aim for Loch Ness because I love the sound of the race. I don't know if your UK travels have taken you up there (forgive me if we had this conversation in Almeria, I can't remember) - but it's a truly fabulous part of the country. I actually feel very different from the way I'd be feeling now if I'd just signed up for another major city marathon, where I think I probably
would be thinking: "Oh no, here we go again...." This time around I'm relishing the thought of plodding along the banks of Loch Ness, beneath the mountains.
Yes, that's it - I seem to have managed to fool myself that this one is more to do with relaxation than effort and energy. Oh dear.....
Do keep us updated with your running, and let us know next time you're over. I'm sure we'd all love to see you again.
