A sad running story

The sad benefits of moving from a tropical area to a southern hemisphere temperate area is that, chances are, you'll wear more clothes. My usual running attire has been promoted from tights, sportsbra, singlet to
- stockings
- thicker stockings
- tights
- running shorts on top of tights
- sportsbra
- merinos fleece
- other fleece
- t-shirt
- red balacava.

And yes, I look like a fucking bank robber. This is because on the first running day here I did not wear any scarf or anything to cover my mouth and I totally sandpapered my throat. To the extent that I barely could eat for a weak, to say nothing of running. I am a bit better now, but still have to go for the bank robber look.

Yesterday the predicted weather was "1-2 showers and then we're heading on into the 17s. SEVENTEEENS PEOPLE!" I waited for half a day for the 1-2 showers to come and for the gloomy weather to head into the 17s. As it did not seem to want to go there, but it was also very stable, I headed out. I had to run 30 km and had mistakenly replaced my usual food for these endeavours (powergels) with snickers bars. This turned out to be mistake number two. Mistake number one was wearing the red scarf, which resulted in me panting to increase temperature and humidity of the air that went into the lungs, which resulted in me virtually dying by km 10 - although I hold the steep hill responsible for that as well.

Anyway, by km 10 I was dead and ready to throw in the towel. Of course this was not going to happen, so I plodded away thinking that at this horrible pace it's gonna take me at least two more hours to finish. Alas, heaven heard my silent prayers and rain started to fall. My pace increased and I headed briskly for the nearest bus stop. Of course, after five minutes of waiting there and freezing my ass off, I decided that this was not going to work and i started running in the rain.

[In chamonix, I had bought a rain jacket, that at this point was resting in my office.] Rain here is, of course, like rain everywhere else on this earth. It's cold and wet. As opposed to Singapore, where it's warm and wet.

I continued to run in the rain for five more kms. At some point the rain stopped, thus destroying any hope i had of a good excuse to stop running. Around the 15th km, I stopped again to eat a snickers bar. I think I must've taken a bigger bite than my sore throat could handle because I remember feeling an immense "THIS IS IT!", a short, faint-y like sensation, after which it managed to pass and I wasn't dead. But I was finished with running. I threw the rest of the snickers bar in the trash and proceeded for the bus stop, without absolutely any remorse.

I paid my 4.60 (FOUR DOLLARS SIXTY CENTS) for the bus ticket and sat down and enjoyed the warmth. (yes, buses here are warm when it rains!) Cooked a gigantic pot of chicken soup and enjoyed three bowls of it, after which i went to sleep at 7pm. Slept until 8 am this morning.

Thing is, a long time ago I promised myself i will run a marathon every year. I thank heavens still that my exact words weren't "I will finish a marathon every year", so this means that I don't have to finish the Goldcoast marathon on July 3rd. Right?!? RIGHT?!?!