Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, two cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Not A Promising Start
by Russell Turner - 11:43 on 12 October 2026
Plan as much as you like, the unexpected can still intervene. Today was to be the long-planned first run of the nine-week pre-marathon training plan plan – an easy 30mins to get things under way. If only. A sore throat yesterday evening was the harbinger of the cold that broke out this morning. It’s not too bad at the moment, which means it might be worse tomorrow. We’ll see how it develops this week.
Where I encountered infection is a mystery but one possibility is the Black Isle Gathering last Saturday, which had already been a day best forgotten. I was there in my guise as Chatterbox editor, to sell a few magazines and raise our profile, and at the same time attempt to raise a few pounds for marathon fundraising. Another plan that came to nothing. Bad weather kept the visitors away and at the end of a five-hour day I’d sold two magazines and raised £6 for Comic Relief: £5 from someone who swiped my QR code and a £1 coin from another browsing passer-by. Whether she was confused or taking the piss I can’t decide.
Although today should have been the start of training, it had made an unofficial start yesterday. Squirrel James was back in Inverness for the weekend and keen to catch up over a four-mile run along the canal. The 45mins I estimated that would take equated to the second run of Week 1 so I brought it forward.
If the nine-week plan becomes an eight-week one, I can live with that. Two gigs this weekend and a trip to Glasgow on Sunday to see Steve Hackett mean things wouldn’t begin properly until next week anyway.
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