The run itself was fun - the first 2 miles I thought the heat was going to kill me, then it started raining and for the next 2 miles I got wet before the sun came out again and by the time I reached Peg-leg at the end of my run I was relatively dry, although streaky here and there.  But at least now my shoes are DNA marked :)

Yes. I'm insane.  I have no less than 6 "races" in 6 weeks coming up from the end of August, but I'm looking forward to it.  A ton.  A whole lot :)  And I'm not REALLY counting the Human Race as a race.  And then I'm flying to South Africa for a week and just chillin' with the family while my sister and mom will run around like headless chickens trying to get everything just so for the wedding on the 18th.   And it might not stop there.  Because when we get back there's another race that awaits me on the 26th of October, but I'm still thinking about that one and thinking that maybe I should not be doing that one.

I'm looking at a marathon in December (the 14th, but I'm still thinking about this one a little) and a few Santa runs and then I'll think about 2009.

For now its just me and my crazy month coming up.

Recently my office decided that one of the social events of the year will be to take part in a charity 10K at one of the old estates in the country - we're off to Wentworth castle on the 21st of September and I need to make sure that I can at least finish the distance :)  A fair few people signed up for the event ... should be a ton of fun :)

Cut for the sake of bandwidth

Another one to follow later....

So, you might remember me bemoaning the fate of my big toe's nail and how sorry I was feeling for myself.   Oh, don't worry, I still feel sorry for myself... now its just because it is VERY uncomfortable running with that thing.

   It wept with me as I was running and afterwards... my toe was STUCK to my shoe.  On the INSIDE.  Now imagine me pulling my foot from my shoe and finding that this is no good.

At least it looks better than it did previously, but I'd still like for my foot to just give it up and lose the nail already.  There is no way I'm going to ask some quack somewhere to pull this one off me.

Peg-leg just laughs at me :)   

So, the treadmill run.  It was great.  It was relaxing. And there was a teen next to me who thought that running at 10 mph was a great accomplishment.  For all 2 minutes that he managed to do it before heading off to the weights again (not exactly sure whether he might've been doing a circuit type thing, but he didn't come back again in the whole time I was there, so I guess that'll be a mystery for the rest of the week), huffing and puffing and looking rather uncomfortable in general. 

Maybe I'll be on time for my spinning class tomorrow and save myself having to run on the treadmill because I made the effort to drive out to the gym in the first place.  That should be a whole other ton of fun :)

So, I push this bin with about 4 weeks worth of garbage out and as I'm pushing, I think "this'd be a good morning to go for a run"  Well.  I should maybe just not have thought that.  It jinxed me.

I got to the front of the house, positioned the bin and let it drop ... with my right big toe neatly in place for the back of the bin to grab hold of that toenail and flip it up in the air... while my toe stayed stationary. 

With tears streaming out my eyes and blood streaming out my toe I wobbled my way back to the house before whimpering until I got to the plasters, wrapped my toe in one, hobbled up the stairs to the bedroom, grabbed a pillow and screamed like a pig being slaughtered (the neighbours at this point probably wondered whether I was being killed, but thankfully they did the British thing and didn't butt in) . 

Then I phoned Peg-Leg for a bit of sympathy before texting my whole family to let them know that I was in the process of dying.

So, now the question is, with a foot that I can't step on because a certain toe punishes me each and every time that I dare to, how am I going to do that 5 miles this afternoon?

Pictures to follow