Marathon withdrawal madness

Well, it's been a few days since I *should* have been running the Bournemouth marathon.  It was supposed to be my first legitimate attempt at a sub-4 hour marathon.  @mia79gbr ran it in my place and got a fabulous time, however, her feet are looking a little worse for wear.  I also have a couple of friends who did marathons last Sunday who's times were far from what they expected.  This reminds me to respect the marathon.

I've been off work for the last 3 days with a horrible cold.  Although I now know this is athlete's flu... A strain far more potent than man flu.  Seriously, I have to be extra cautious.  Last year I had a few of these uRTIs and one was so bad I thought I'd developed pneumonia.  Such is the risk as an asthma sufferer that I'm entitled to a flu vaccination on the NHS, which was scheduled at my surgery for this weekend, but another wedding, so shall have to go to another one next week.  Neither would have been in time though, and it probably better that I have a bit longer to recover from this athlete's flu before getting a vaccination.

Naturally, as I've been ill, I haven't done any running for a week now.  It seems I always tend to get sick after taking a little break from running.  So, in response, I have of course entered a couple more marathons! The Lakeland Trails one around Coniston water in July - a beautiful mini break for my birthday, and hopefully a chance to test out my camping kit (once purchased) ahead of TR24.  And the Bacchus Marathon in Surrey.  Entries opened yesterday, and I entered as soon as I knew.  I had such fun doing the half last year, and this time I will definitely do it in fancy dress.  I was thinking of going as a bunch of grapes, but if anyone has any more original ideas, I would love to hear about them.

So, it would be great to know who is doing the marathons I have planned for 2014:

Manchester - 6th April

London - 13th April

Coniston water - 6th July

Bacchus - 14th September.

Happy running people!