The crying tree

Lets start at the beginning. A few years ago my husband wanted to do Parkrun-he'd read about it and rather fancied it after he'd done a 10k or two. He persuaded me to go along as he knew I was keen to start running but was apprehensive. Actually it was a fair few years ago as I know I was still smoking and I'm about to celebrate 3 years smoke free! Anyway I digress:

I can remember not being overly keen on this Parkrun lark- I'd read the website and been assured they were very friendly and inclusive but still I was scared. So scared that I snivelled delicately behind my (huge, non running) sunglasses the whole way there. When we arrived I'd sort of imagined that there would be some sort of nice "newbie" section. You know, like in aerobics "any new people. any injuries? Welcome, lovely to meet you, lets bugger this running lark and have a cuppa" - you know, that total flight of fantasy that meant No Running With The Proper Runners.  However we arrived dead on starting time and before I even realised I was there everyone (who were all dressed like proper runners) took off like shit off a shovel up a quite frankly humongous hill. Very quickly I realised that I was being overtaken quite swiftly by the kids, buggy pushers and dog runners, people who are usually related to the back of the pack. I tried to keep up (remember its a proper shitter of a hill) and suddenly a lady was beside me. "Are you ok? Im the back marker and we're quite far from the back" Me: "wheeze, gasp, hiccup, sob" I swear to God at this point some of the lycra clad men were fair bounding back DOWN the shitting hill, barely a sweat on their lycra leggings (which to be fair will ALWAYS look weird on men). At this point I informed the back marker lady that I "couldn't do it" and to "carry on without me" like a dying soldier in the trenches and I limped my way back to the tree where all the belongings were, to wait for my husband with my (huge) sunglasses firmly back over my (still leaking) eyes. From this moment forth it became known as "The Crying Tree"- a name that has since been adopted by some of my running friends that have helped me to conquer my fear of that dreaded Parkrun.

Anyway I was thinking about the crying tree today. I have been quite poorly lately- Tonsillitis, a lingering cold, two lots of antibiotics and a trip to the out of hours GP yesterday where I got diagnosed with costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage between the ribs from coughing) and I am sick of being ill. I missed my planned run at Tyntesfield this morning but then I realised that a few of my C25K pals were going out to do a 28 minute run at lunchtime. I decided to join them. I decided that actually its a BEAUTIFUL day (17 degrees on Nov 1st) and I want to blow away some cobwebs and possibly some germs, especially as I return to work tomorrow after 2 weeks off *sob*

We started to run and it was hard- my calves were hurting, my nose is blocked and my chest definitely isn't 100%. After about 10 mins I was thinking of stopping- Doubting Delores popped into my head "You're poorly, You're tired, it won't MATTER if you stop and wait for the others to finish, they'll understand, you can just wait, or walk" etc etc. Then I thought: If I stop and they carry on I will be PISSED OFF. I won't be able to join in the post run selfie, I won't have the smug pants, I will feel CRAP. In fact, I would be firmly under the metaphorical crying tree. I don't want to go back to the crying tree. The crying tree lives firmly in my running past. There will be no more crying trees on my runs.

In fact I enjoyed it so much I have decided to do a running streak for November. Now don't worry, thats not streak as in nudey rudey streak, its a streak of a number of runs in a row- Im am doing 30 days (the whole of Nov) and the only stipulation is each run is at least 1km (so no running down drive in trainers and dressing gown pretending that counts before diving back into bed feeling falsely smug!) I will record it here so I can brain dump all the feelings I have during these 30 days. Hopefully there will be no crying trees involved...........