5 weeks to go

I am BACK. Again. No more ankle issues.

My thighs hurt from intervals and i am off to a 2 hours run tomorrow. Wish me luck, it is not going to be easy !

I received my confirmation email. I am definitely running the Berlin marathon ! YOUPI !

Gutted that the ballot of the 2011 London marathon is already closed :(. Will try to enter it through Thomas Cook Marathons though... It might cost me some money :S

Back to running. I hope...

I have been BUSY last week. Coming back from France, finishing my internship, having 6 cousins over for the week end (which was great :) ). Two things.

Bad news : I twisted my ankle last Thursday. Which means I have not been able to run since then. But I will try tomorrow and we will see.

Good news : I FOUND A JOB. And I mean a real job... At Christie's King Street ! I am over the moon. And that explains why I was not writing as much as I used to, when I did not have a "real" job.

But, more on my possible running tomorrow...

Back dans les Bacs

I had a busy week end in France & I have great news.

1. I have two interviews this week, so fingers crossed.

2. I had a gift from my parents. A beautiful (...) running watch. It gives me my pace, the kilometers, the time, everything while I run, so now I am ready.

3. I went for a quick run with my father on Sunday. It was supposed to be quick because I woke up at 5:20 am to take my plane to France on Saturday, and I had a little family reunion on Saturday night (we were about 120 !) so I did not sleep much. But my father kind of tricked me into my longest run ever.55 minutes on my watch, 47 minutes on his, I prefer mine :). But anyway it is the longest I have ever run since the debacle of the NYC marathon. There were some walking moments, but not that much. And most importantly, it was at 11 am, faaar too late for me, it was hot, but I quite enjoyed it ! It wasn't that hard, of course I would have rather stayed in bed reading or spending time with my family, but it was worth it at the end :)

4. Last but not least, I started intervals this morning... Oh God how I haven't miss those... The plan was to sprint for 30 seconds, then walk for 30 seconds, and to repeat that 10 times. It started bad as I wasn't even able to run the first 15 minutes I had planned before even starting the intervals. Then I sprinted for the first time : 10.3 km/h. Umph that's bad... I walked for 30 seconds, and sprinted a second time : 10.8. Already better. I am gonna spare you the details but the 30/30 ratio became a 30 seconds running / 1 minute walking, than a 30 seconds running / walking until I am ok, then a 20 seconds running / walking until I am ok, then running as long as I can / walking until I am able to breathe and my face stops burning... BUT at the end, I was sprinting at 12.6 km/h ! And I did all 10 of the intervals I had planned.
To finish, I decided to run home, and obviously enough, I was running at 7 km/h - 7.5 km/h, whereas my usual pace is 6 km/h (don't laugh !). I ran in total for 43 minutes so pretty good run/walk after all :)

ps : I am EXHAUSTED ! It's the first time since a long time that my legs hurt so much. Welcome back intervals ! I don't wanna think of Thursday... :(

First Three Things Thursday

1. Running : I ran today. True, I did not run yesterday, the day I was supposed to, but I had a good excuse, something to celebrate (which you will read on in 2.). So I decided to take a day off and did not even feel bad about it !
Yesterday I put my alarm clock at 6:45. And I almost fell off my bed when it rang. Grumph... I did not wanna go. No big deal, I'll go tomorrow, oh no I have to go, but I'm sooo tired, ok let's go you have a marathon in less than a 100 days !
I was out by 6:55, started walking, and running at 7 am sharp. Since the beginning I felt great, little pain in the knee that went away, little pain in my thigh that went away as fast. I was running slowly, nice and easy, no breathing issue, no cramps, I wasn't thirsty or hungry.
I looked at my watch : wow 20 minutes already gone ! I felt that I could keep on running forever. I decided to add a couple of extra minutes as I was feeling so good. That is how... I ran 41 minutes today ! Tadah !
11 more minutes that my best is pretty good I believe... Especially for me ! It was cloudy today, although still hot, but I think that helped. And I did not start too 'fast'. I understand that I need to work on my pace, but not on long distances. I am also wondering if my good run has something to do with the fact that I rested for 2 days. Last time I did not run 3 days, then I ran 30 minutes. This time I did not run 2 days, then I ran 41 minutes... Hmmm I'll talk about it with my coach, also known as Darounet.

2. I FOUND A JOB ! Ok a crappy job, but it is still a job ! I finish my internship on Tuesday, and I start working on Wednesday ! Talk about eficiency ! I will be working in a sports shop LOL, who would have thought... First paid job ever. I will finally take off some of the guilt from my shoulder :)

3. Last but not least... Drum roll... Federer lost in the quarter finals of Wimbledon ! YES ! I just LOVE tennis. And I know, I know Federer is the best player ever. He is the best. Or he was the best actually... I am sorry but I can't stand seeing him everywhere all the time. I love outsiders, and especially the most talented of them all : Rafael. Although he is not quite the outsider right now, but I love him anyway. So Vamos Rafa !

Dream On, Dream On, Dream Until Your Dream Come True

No running for me today, day off. And as always I am wandering on running blog to find inspiration, and the will to keep on running... And as it is raining on London (THANK. GOD.), I am more comfortable thinking of myself running... And my mind wanders too... What race would I like to do... Hmmm... Let's see.

1. ATHENS MARATHON : I love History of Art, it is my passion and hopefully it will be my job someday. Thanks to my dear parents who allowed me to visit a lot of foreign countries while being very young (especially Greece and Turkey), I have a real passion for Ancient Greece. So what could be better than to run on the route of the first marathon ever, between Marathon and Athens...

2. GREAT WALL MARATHON : Oh My God, just looking at the picture I am exhausted ! How many steps are there ? I don't wanna know... But how cool could it be to run a marathon on the Great Wall of China... Exotic !

3. BIG FIVE MARATHON : This one looks difficult... Africa. Sun. Hot. But look at the pictures ! Who wouldn't wanna do it ! 42,195 km, what it it in a life ? Nothing ! But the memories... Oh my god what a reward ! (side note : let me tell you that at the 20th km in NYC I knew that 42,195 was actually SOMETHING...)

4. NORTH POLE MARATHON : Brrrr... That must be life altering. I sooo wanna do this one !

5. BOSTON MARATHON : Again my love for History... It is the oldest marathon of all the modern marathons. The most famous one. And... there are qualifying times to be allowed to run it... So let's say that this one is not gonna happen any time soon lol. But for someone who's remotely interested in running marathons, it is a must.

6. NEW YORK CITY MARATHON : I wanna run it again. It was my first (and maybe my last ? Hell no !), and the atmosphere was unbelievable. Maybe it is like that for all the other big marathons, but I don't kinow that. Yet... I wanna run it again because I wasn't prepared when I ran it in 2009, I was a mess and I didn't enjoy it enough.

7. And for fun, I would like to add the CHICAGO MARATHON and the LONDON MARATHON, because with Boston, New York and Berlin, they form the world marathon majors. And that would be cooool, wouldn't it ? :)

Sooooo, for now I am struggling to run for 30 minutes, let alone my pace that I didn't know... All these are dreams... Or are they ?... Daaaaadddounet ?! :D

Set Back

I went running this morning. And it was HARD !

I left my flat at 7:05. I started with my 5 minutes walk. Then I started running, everything was fine. I thought I was going faster than the other times, but looking at my watch I realised I was going REALLY faster than on Saturday.
I just added about 2 miles to my usual route to go to the Queen's Club Gardens, and I was there 2 minutes early than when I did not add those 2 miles... And obviously I started having trouble breathing well. So I decided to walk for 2 minutes. After that I was ok, so I started running again. After 5 minutes, I got a cramp on my left thigh. So I stopped to stretch a little then continued running. After 2 minutes I had a cramp in my right thigh ! I was PISSED. I stopped to stretch and went on running. After 5 minutes I couldn't breathe well and my lung hurt. And I was SOOO hungry ! I had a hole in my stomach...

That was it. I kept running/walking. Finally, I did that for 30 minutes, but it was hard and I ran nowhere 30 minutes, maybe 20 minutes but that is a max.

Not every day can be a good day. I had a bad day running but on Thursday I will rock my run. Especially since I have a little money and am about to treat myself with some running goodies :)

Back at the top, or my top

I didn't write yesterday... Because I didn't run yesterday... Again... Same excuses but as true as last time : preview, too much champagne, standing up all night, Alys here & so on. I was feeling kind of bad but everything's back in place after this morning run.

I woke up at 7:26 am. I was out by 7:30. Then I decided to include the 5 minutes warm up walk that I read everybody's doing on different blogs. So after some stretching and a 5 min walk, I started running. I didn't know what to expect because of me stopping running completely for 3 days, and at first it started bad. I couldn't move my legs, I ran but it was small steps and not fast... I think I probably would have walked faster but I needed to run. Concerning my breathing, everything went fine after a false start.

At first I wanted to run 20 minutes, no more 30 minutes because of my days off, but I was feeling ok so I started wandering (while running of course...) through the streets and discovered some nice things :
- there is a swimming pool just around the corner ! So that's good for crossed training
- I discovered the most beautiful street ever discovered in London ! Too bad I didn't have my camera. It's farther than I usually go but it's definitely worth it.
- there is a parc not so far too, so I could run there. But I don't know because there is no shadow at all in this parc, and right now in London, it is SO HOT. Moreover, there is no clear path to run, you just have to run your way through the grass, and being the freak I am I don't like that very much... We'll see
- it is the first time it is so hot in London in the morning, it is hell. I can't stand running in the sun. I didn't know I could sweat that much on an early morning run. And viva the cold shower !

I made a decision too : I can't totally stop running for a few days like that anymore... I need to go out running, even if it's for 15 minutes, because I need my legs to understand that I'm not gonna let them rest until September the 26th !

That's it for today, I'm proud of me, at least for the time, not for the pace (thnk God I don't have a Garmin yet :) ). Monday, or maybe tomorrow (remember I'm not gonna stop myself when I want to go running so who knows...), I thing I'll stay at 30 minutes. But the time after that, we're heading up ;)

Postponed.

Just like the match between Mahut & Isner... UNBELIEVABLE ! 5 sets, 59-59 in the last one ! And I did not even see one point... Thanks Alys ! Yes, I have a friend over for 3 days so yesterday was a day off work, and a day enjoying being a tourist in London...

We visited exhibitions that I've wanted to go to for quite a while.
The first one was Skin at the Wellcome Collection and it was quite interesting. It was not an art exhibition, more of a medical one. My friend told me about the need of the curators to provoke a reaction of disgust from the visitor, that kind of appeal to sensational that is really British. And it is true indeed that they play with that (cf. video about suturing or too thorough description of disgusting skin diseases - yeurk). But I personnally enjoyed it. I always loved these kind of disgusting things, I managed to go to the Our Body exhibition in Paris. It was a show that exhibited human corpses in different positions and at different stages of dissection. It was really interesting, but kind of gross too and it was forbidden after a while because things weren't clear about who the dead people really were...

Anyway I quite enjoyed this first exhibition even it wasn't life altering... We then headed to Sloane Square to visit the Saatchi Gallery. Shame on me, I always tell people that Contemporary Art is my thing & so on and I've been here 3 months and did not even go to the White Cube Gallery or the Saatchi Gallery. Well at least now the first one is done. And IT. WAS. CRAP. Except for one work of art. And there are 13 rooms so there was a lot of CRAP ! I remind you nonetheless that art is subjective, and that what I might hate someone might fall in love with... someone like Saatchi... But that last part was definitely worth it.

And you see where this post is going... I walked and walked all day yesterday, and on the evening I had a preview planned, and wine etc and... I only woke up at 8:09 am this morning... :( So no running for me today, but it is not that bad because I have been SO exhausted lately ! I spend my days yawning...

So I'll see you tomorrow, because I may have taken a day off running today, but I won't tomorrow. And 30 minutes it will be !

That's what I'm talking about !

I DID IT ! Yes !

I woke up this morning at 7 am and was out by 7:10. I started stretching, and I took my time to do it because I had a goal this morning : my first 30 minutes run since the NYC marathon last november. I was near 25 minutes the last time I went and I was angry for not running yesterday so mentally I was ready.

I started running at 7:15 sharp. And aouch, instant pain in both my legs, but well, I thought 'let's keep it up and we'll see'. And it slowly (SLOWLY) fade away. I decided to take a longer route to go to the usual Queen's Club Gardens, where I do laps. And even though I took a definitely longer route to get to the Queen's Club Gardens, I was there in 6 minutes, instead of the usual 8 minutes it takes me... Hmmm... I am definitely running faster then...

Anyhow, I am starting my first lap of the Queen's Club Garden. And usually this is when I need a couple of minutes because I'm struggling with my breathing. But today I did not, so I kept on running. First lap : good. Second lap : good. I am not even looking at my watch. Then I do and I realise that I am running a lap in 6 minutes ! I will have to do a lot of laps to get to the 1h30 in the future... But hey that's a good thing right ? Right... (I am a control freak, so I am already obsessing about where I will run when I will run longer, cause let's face it, I'm not gonna do 25 laps, people will start thinking I'm some kind of dumb freak)

I kept on running and running. I was now running for 20 minutes, good ! Time to get back home, knowing that after a 20 minutes run I probably ran slower. I decided to take the longer route anyway and well... It was too short, I still had 5 minutes left to get to 30. So I passed in front of my apartment and continued. THAT is hard ! And I had to do that THREE TIMES !

But finally I reached my 30 minutes goal, YEY :D ! First goal reached in 7 days, with two days off. YES again.

Now the slightly harder part begins, cause on Thursday I will have to run for 30 minutes again, and again, and again and then I will have to increase this time. Arrf. Already feeling exhausted.

I have to admit though that while running this morning I thought about the marathon and... As always, first thought : oh my god why did I decide to do that again ?! ; second thought : Oh yeah I'm doing it, it's gonna be sooo exciting :).

On a side note : I learned something yesterday while coming home from work. Apparently some people can ACTUALLY sleep on a motorcycle...

Got me once, Won't get me twice...

I did not. I did not, I did not, I did not :(. I did not run this morning. Bad bad BAD MARIE !

Explanation : I woke up Sunday morning feeling great. Rested from my too early run on Saturday morning, and a beautiful day ahead of me (brunch with some friends & job hunting). I felt the urge to go outside to run, as it was still pretty early for a Sunday morning (8 am). BUT I remembered how Saturday run went well so I decided that no, I was gonna wait for monday. Thinking that this way, I would be able to run better, and finally get to the 30 minutes run.

This morning I woke up at 6. Too early ! So I went back to sleep, knowing that my alarm was set to ring at 7:30. It rang indeed. I stepped out of bed and BANG, my back was killing me ! Everytime I put a foot on the floor, it was like a giant flash of pain. Grrr I was so angry. Sure enough, I was ok by the time I was to get ready for work...

So THAT IS IT. When I want to go running (and God knows it does not happen too often !), I will go running. No postponing anymore, cause I'll end with two days without running again. Today Guilt's here, by my side. And I feel like crap. Tomorrow morning I will run 30 minutes, out of will and THAT IS IT TOO.

Side note : you might wonder why I don't decide to go for a run tonight ? I can't. It's like when I try to listen to music. I can't. I can't run with a full stomach. I need to get out of bed, put on my running shoes, and run. Otherwise, I have to wait for the next day. I tried once or twice and almost threw up. Weird, but true story...

Running out of Anger !

Late post but I did not pass on my running yesterday ! And I am proud because it started bad...

As I am struggling to make it to July financially, I didn't go out to party on Friday night. Stayed in, pasta (cheapest one) & Dexter/CSI. I went to bed around 1 am. My flatmate, he decided to go out to party, and that's good for him. BUT he apparently decided to wake me up at 5:50 am too, when he got back. I was pissed. But instead of feeling angry and trying to get back to sleep, I decided to go out to run.

The weather was perfect again. I started fast, litterally an angry runner, with face and everything. And then I realised that I couldn't breathe anymore :), so I slowed down to my usual pace, which is increasing... And then I ran pretty well ! For 25 minutes with a 2 minutes walk break ! I added one more lap to my usual route and as I said I believe I increased my pace. I am even forced to change my route to make it longer.

So pretty good way to start a day, if you put aside the whole waking up at 5:50 am on a saturday thing... Back home, I realised I had made a huge mistake, getting out of the house so angry. Instead of leaving the keys in my usual hiding place outside the building, I hid them outside the flat, meaning I had no keys to open the door of the building ! Thank God I realised that when I was finished running. So it is around 6:30 am, I am sweating and looking ridiculous, and buzzing my door for at least 10 minutes NON STOP, when my tired/still drunk flatmate finally hears me and open the door. I swear I did not do that to wake him up on purpose, but that felt kind of good, payback is a bitch !

You Are A Disappointment !

And I am indeed... Guess who didn't go out to run this morning ? ME !

Let me first write here the excuses that I spent all morning finding.
I woke up at 6 am, too early ! So I thought I'd get back to sleep just for a while... Next thing I know, my flatmate woke me up, at 8:15 ! Too bad :( it is too late to run. But anyway the weather is shitty today anyway. And I think I am still a little tired from yesterday... ok OK I KNOW it is not physically possible... But anyway, I did not go and that's it. I am prepared to deal with Guilt all day long, bring it !

So as I cant write about running today, I am going to write about the most important thing when you love running : your shoes ! I LOVE SHOES. They are MY thing, some have clothes, some have earrings, I HAVE SHOES. And when I first started running, I did not understand why I had to spend so much money on ugly shoes... Once I ran just one little time in Converse (don't laugh...), I got it. Ok, I was ready to spend as much as it took.

I went to a running shop, and let the team advise me. I ended up with these ones, except they were blue. I KNOW they're ugly but they were sooooo comfy.
.
They are shoes with no actual sewing inside, so no blister ! I ran for a year in these shoes and never had one little problem. But I made a huge mistake on the day of my first marathon... I put plasters on all my toes, to prevent from blisters. One plaster I did not put real flat. AOUCHH !

Anyway, I needed to buy new shoes. So I went to the same little running shop. And this time I told them I wanted Spira shoes. And I wasn't reluctant to pay the price for it. I know now it is worth every cent. I have been running with these shoes for about a month, and they seem perfectly fine ! Good choice again ;) Go Spira !

Running Routine & Improvement

Yesterday, good news : I was invited not to come to work before 1 pm. That was the universe telling me 'No excuse'... So after a good night sleep, I woke up around 7 am, put my disgusting outfit(I look so ridiculous in a sport outfit...) and my beautiful and beloved running shoes on and I was out.

The weather is beautiful today in London : sunny, with a refreshing breeze. Perfect. I started ok but I felt something wrong : I wasn't breathing well. I was not using my usual 1-2 in 1-2 out. I don't know why because it is kind of a natural thing I do but not today. I ended up having breathing issue for the rest of the run :s. But that was okay, I walked a little bit but was out for 25 minutes, 5 minutes more than on Tuesday, and one lap more than on Tuesday too !

I found a quiet little place to run, 3 minutes from my flat. It is right there. And as it is quite small I get to do laps, which is a good way to register your progress, especially when you don't have a running watch.

And while running around the Queen's Club Gardens, I thought & I decided that starting from today I was gonna run everyday, EVERYDAY, until I am able to run 30 minutes or more without walking. By everyday I mean not Sunday, come on even God rested on that day ! It is going to be hard at the beginning but I need to do this. A hundred days to go and I am nowhere near ready... Hopefully it will give me the motivation to run more and faster, so that I can get more day off !

Plus que 101 jours !

Aujourd'hui c'est mon jour congé, pas de course ce matin et j'ai dormi comme un loir (jusque 8h ! qui l'eut cru...). Mais je suis tellement excitée d'avoir commencé ce blog (et je m'ennuie un peu au boulot) que j'ai décidé d'écrire aujourd'hui aussi.

Parce que j'ai appris pas mal de choses aujourd'hui sur internet (bon je m'emmer** vraiment au taf...). D'abord, j'ai appris grace a mon cher pere que deux problemes qui peuvent sembler totalement différents peuvent finalement etre connectés ! Euuuuh, pas tres clair tout ca.
Le Darounet ne peut plus courir. Juste avant de faire le marathon de Rome 2010, son tendon d'Achille a commencé a lui faire mal. Et en fait ca a empiré depuis, en fait il ne peut toujours pas courir aujourd'hui alors que le marathon de Rome s'est déroulé en mars !

Note a part : ca me fait FLIPPER ! Parce que nous, mon pere et moi, sommes les deux seuls malades mentaux de notre famille a etre inscrits pour le marathon de Berlin. Ca veut dire que s'il ne va pas mieux, s'il ne peut toujours pas courir d'ici aout, JE vais me retrouver a courir un marathon TOUTE SEULE ! Y'a pas moyen. Ca j'y arriverais pas. Pendant la débacle qu'a été le marathon de New York, mon pere était la, a mes cotés, a chaque pas (en fait il m'a pratiquement trainé les 15 derniers km). Et s'il n'avait pas été la, je ne l'aurais surement pas fini. Donc le fait qu'il aille mieux vite est fondamentalement lié au fait que je ne devienne pas completement folle d'angoisse.
(Il m'a cependant déja prévenu que ce marathon, il voulait le faire bien. C'est-a-dire en moins de 6h30 LOL. C'est-a-dire que de toute facon je transpirerai toute seule. Mais tout ca releve plutot du psychologique)

Mais revenons a nos moutons : Darounet, 2 choses completement opposées, tendon d'Achille. Je demande donc a ;on pere comment il se sent aujourd'hui (sous-entendu : NE ME LAISSE PAS ! STP cours avec moi et fourre moi dans le bec tes trucs degueu en gelée et tes cachets de sel immondes pendant que je rugis et pleure!) et sa réponse m'a surprise.

Apparemment il a rendez-vous chez le dentiste, pour faire des radios de ses gencives. Apparemment les problemes aux gencives seraient liés aux problemes de tendons, selon le médecin. Premiere réaction : 'Ca tombe bien Pa', j'ai un peu mal au pouce droit, je pense que je vais choisir un shampoing aromatisé a la cerise, et ca ira surement mieux !' Mouahahahah
Mais j'ai quand meme regardé sur internet, au cas ou (il arrive parfois que mon pere ait raison...) et... je n'ai rien trouvé ! Mais c'est surement parce que mon pere devrait arreter d'aller voir un MARABOUT et plutot aller chez un vrai médecin ! lol. Mais peut-etre que certains d'entre vous en savent un peu plus sur la relation gencive/tendon ?

J'aimerais aussi avoir quelques conseils concernant un autre probleme. Course a pied + musique.
Je n'y arrive tout simplement pas ! Et ca m'énerve vraiment parce que je vis en/pour/grace a la musique ! Je ne vais nulle part sans iPhone/iPod.
Quand j'ai commencé a courir, j'écoutais de la musique en meme temps. Et puis un jour mon iPod n'ayant plus de batterie (contrairement a moi :)), j'ai couru sans musique. Et tout a coup je trouvais mon souffle ! Je pouvais respirer en rythme avec mon corps et non plus avec la musique que j'écoutais. Et depuis je n'ai plus couru en musique, et c'est drolement ennuyeux quand on court longtemps (je sais JE SAIS ca fait longtemps ! Mais quand meme...).
Aujourd'hui j'ai lu des articles a propos de nouveaux trucs qui ont l'air trop cool, comme le gadget Nike que tu mets sur ta chaussure et qui accorde la musique de ton iPod au rythme de tes pas. Je suis un peu geek sur les bords et JE LE VEUX ! J'ai actuellement un iPhone (il fonctionne a peine, mais j'espere qu'il tiendra jusqu'a l'arrivée du 4G :)), 2 iPods et un Shuffle; je DOIS trouver un moyen ! Des suggestions ?

Nike Fury 100 Style Watch, Black/Black

101 days & Counting !

So today was my day off, no running in the morning and I slept like a baby (til 8 am ! who would have thought...). BUT I am so excited to have started a blog (and a bit bored at work too) that I decided to write today anyway.

Cause I learned quite a lot today on the internet (okay I am really bored at work...). First of all I learned from my beloved old man that two problems can seem unrelated at all but are actually connected ! Let me make myself clear here. Daddydou cant run anymore. Just before running the 2010 Rome marathon, his Achilles tendon started to hurt. And it pretty much got worse since then, so much that he still cannot run today, and the Rome marathon was in March !

On a side note, let me tell you that it freaks the hell out of ME. Because we, my father and I, are the only two crazy sick people of my family to be signed in for the Berlin marathon. Meaning that IF he does not get better, IF he still cannot run in about a month, I will have to run that marathon by myself, ALONE ! No way. Wont be able to. During the debacle of the NYC marathon, he was by my side, step by step (oooh baby, gonna get to you giiiiirl. Thanks to New Kids on the Block here ;) ), and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have finish it. So his getting better is a part of me not being crazily worried, and I do mean CRAZY!
(He yet warned me that this marathon, he wanted to do it right. Meaning in less than 6 hours and a half lol. Meaning I am going to be sweating on my own anyway. But all this is psychological. Nevermind.)

But let's get back to the point, so : Dad, 2 things totally unrelated, Achilles tendon. I asked him how he was feeling today about it (don't do this to me Daddy ! Please run and feed me disgusting jelly salted things while I scream and cry!) and I was surprised by his answser.

Apparently he is going to a dentist, to X-ray his teeth, his gingiva more precisely. It seems to have an impact an tendons problems, so the doctor said. First reaction : 'Well Dad, as I am feeling some kind of pain in my right thumb, I am thinking of changing for a cherry flavor shampoo, might do the trick !' Mouahahah
But I tried to look it on the internet anyway (the old man is occasionnally right on some little things...) & I found nothing. But that is probably because my father should change his Chaman and maybe go to a REAL doctor :). But maybe some of you know something about that ... ?

I would quite like some advice on another thing. Running + Music.
I can't, I just can't. And it is really annoying because I LIVE IN/FOR/THANKS TO music. I do not go anywhere without my iPhone/iPod !
When I started running, I ran with music on. Then one day, my iPod ran out of battery (while I did not ;)) and I ran in silence. And I was not struggling to breathe anymore ! I found my pace, I could breathe in line with the rythm of my body, not with the rythm of the music I was listening to. So I stopped, and it feeld kind of lonely when I run for a long distance (OK OK it's been a while but still..)
And I read articles about new appealing stuff like the Nike thing that you put on your shoe and it fits the music you are listening to your steps. I am kind of a geek sometime, and I WANT THAT ! I have an iPhone (barely but it still works. Sometimes. Hope it will be ok till the new 4G is out :)), an iPod and a Shuffle (a kind gift of E&F just before boarding to NY). I must find a way ! Any suggestions ?

On y va !

Maintenant que vous savez pourquoi, concentrons-nous sur le futur !

Berlin. 26 septembre. 42,195 km. OH MON DIEU pourquoi est-ce que j'ai encore fait ca ?!Mais parce que je suis stupide, masochiste et que j'ai la mémoire d'un POISSON ROUGE !:(

La course me tourne dans la tete depuis environ 1 mois 'Il faut que je commence. Ca se rapproche dangereusement. Allez Marie faut que tu t'y mettes !'. Bon, j'ai décidé de VRAIMENT m'y mettre la semaine derniere, je sais JE SAIS, c'est dans 3 mois ! Ne vous inquietez pas, ma tendre amis, Culpa(bilité), est déja derriere moi chaque seconde du jour et se débrouille pour faire partie de mes nuits aussi...

Me voila donc mardi dernier, réveillée a 7h du matin, me préparant a aller courir, et puis... Il pleuvait des cordes ! Un pas dehors et j'étais trempée, mais NON, j'avais décidé d'aller courir, j'irai donc courir. Et apres 15 minutes, j'ai abandonné... J'avais plein de bonnes excuses cependant, comme toujours : il pleut a verses, c'est mon premier jour il faut que je commence doucement, je ferai mieux jeudi. Enfin je me suis débrouillée pour etre a peu pres en accord avec moi meme.
Et puis c'est arrivé. Mon coloc. Cet enfoiré. ' Je t'ai entendu ce matin, t'es pas allée courir longtemps dis donc ! T'y retournes apres le boulot ou quoi ?'. J'aurais pu le tuer, ca m'a rendu folle. Donc j'étais, comment dire ca sans passer pour une folle suicidaire, un peu déprimée.

Le jour suivant, mercredi soir, j'avais une soirée pour le boulot, le genre de soirée ou tu bois du champagne et tu restes debout pendant des heures en talons. Evidemment j'ai bu trop de champagne, et apparemment mes talons étaient trop hauts... Je n'arrivais plus a marcher pour rentrer chez moi. Courir jeudi était hors de question.

Ca me faisait encore mal samedi et, bon, dimanche je suis rentrée de soirée a 5 heures du mat, donc pas de course non plus :)... :( en fait. Bref, lundi, mes pieds ne me faisaient plus mal, plus d'excuse... Mais, je n'y suis pas allé et ooooh Culpa était présente TOUTE. LA. JOURNÉE. J'étais tellement énervée contre moi-meme ! Et je m'en suis donc pris a tout le monde autour de moi (sorry Roomie)...

Alors aujourd'hui AUJOURD'HUI je suis allée courir ! A 6 heures du mat (je n'arrive TOUJOURS PAS a dormir, frustrant sachant que je bosse a 10h :( ). Le temps était magnifique, je savais que ma journée était plutot tranquille et je n'avais rien de prévu pour la soirée.

Bon je ne vais pas mentir (ce n'est pas le but ici), ca a quand meme été difficile. Mais je vais surpasser les nombreux, nombreux obstacles que je, le plus souvent, mets moi-meme sur la route (poids, soirée, flemme, etc). Donc je vous revois jeudi, pas de soirée, pas d'excuse, et JE FERAIS MIEUX !

Y arriverai-je ... ? Bien sur LOL ;) !

Let's Get Started !

Now that you are aware of the reason why, let's focus on the future !

Berlin. 26 September. 42,195 km. Oh dear lord, why did I do that again ?! Silly masochistic girl !

Running is on my mind since about a month ago 'I have to start, it's getting closer. come on Marie you have to do that !'. Well I decided to REALLY begin my preparation last week, I know, I know, it's in 3 months ! Don't worry, my beloved friend, Guilt, is already following every step of my day and manages to be a big part of my nights too...

So here I was last Tuesday, waking up at 7 am or so, getting ready, and then... It was raining cats & dogs outside ! One step out and I was all wet, but no, I started running. And then after 15 minutes I gave up. I was full of good excuses, as always : it is raining, it is my first day I have to take it slow, I'll do better on Thursday. I managed to feel kind of okay with myself, enough to not kill myself :). And then it happened. My flatmate. That bastard. 'I heard you this morning, you did not go for long, are you going to run again after work or what ?'. I could have killed him, it drove me crazy, so many memories of my mother... So I was, how to put it not to sound like a suicidal person, kind of bumped out...

The day after, on Wednesday night, I had a preview for work, where you drink champagne and stand up in high heels for hours. Obviously I had too much champagne, and my heels were too high. I almost could not go home. I had to take a feet bath before going to bed. Running on Thursday was out of question.

It still hurt on Saturday, and well, I came back home at 5 am on the Sunday morning so no running on Sunday either :)... On Monday, it was clear my feet did not hurt anymore, I had no more excuse... But I did not go, and oh was Guilt close to me ALL. DAY. LONG. I was pissed off at myself, and took it out on anyone around me obviously (sorry Roomie)...

So today TODAY I DID go for a run, at 6 am (I literally CANT sleep, really annoying knowing that I start working at 10...). The weather was beautiful, I knew my day was gonna be calm and nothing planned for the evening.

Well I am not gonna lie, it's still was difficult. I struggled. To run 20 sorry minutes. It is ugly that I can tell you. But I will overcome the many, many, obstacles that I, often, put on myself ( weight, lazyness, parties, and so on). So I will see you on Thursday, no party, no excuse, and I WILL do better!

Or will I... ? Lol ;)

Préparation pour le marathon de NY ! Du moins c'est ce que je pensais...

Et me voila, seule a Paris, me préparant pour un marathon. Mon pere, en tant que marathonien accompli, m'a donné les conseils de base. Selon lui, il suffit de trois choses pour se préparer a courir un marathon : courir, manger sainement et de la volonté.

La premiere chose, courir, je commencais. Je commencais VRAIMENT, c'est-a-dire que la premiere fois que j'ai couru, c'était pour 3 minutes et j'étais au bord de la crise d'asthme. Mais j'ai doucement réalisé que le corps integre les efforts and j'ai vraiment commencé a courir. 30 minutes facile, meme 1 heure, et je courais meme pendant 1h45, donc ca c'était bon. Suivant les conseils de mon pere, je faisais des fractionnés, de plus en plus longs. Donc ca c'était bon aussi, enfin c'est ce que je pensais...

La deuxieme chose, manger, j'étais plus ou moins ok, et gérant de maniere adulte mes problemes j'ai commencé a perdre du poids donc c'était bien.

La troisieme chose, la volonté, oh c'est pas si grave, au pire je courrai/marcherai pendant 10 heures et je le finirai quand meme ; c'était ce que je pensais vraiment. Je le pensais tellement que de temps en temps, je n'allais pas courir, en me disant que j'allais y aller le jour suivant, ou celui d'apres, etc.

Vous voyez le probleme venir ? Moi je ne le voyais pas...

Un mois avant le marathon, mon pere m'a inscrit a un semi-marathon, tout comme les amis avec lesquels nous allions courir le marathon de NY. 'Ok, ca devrait aller, je devrais pouvoir le faire, pourrais-je ?...'

OH NON ! Je n'ai pas pu ! Je suis tombée au sol d'épuisement apres seulement 4 km, la derniere des dernieres, me faisant meme doubler par la voiture-balai... C'est LA que la vraie préparation a commencé. Et je parle de se lever a 5h du matin, avant d'aller au boulot a 7, pour courir une heure, avec beaucoup plus de sprints que de marches de repos que quand je me préparais toute seule...

Je me retrouvais finalement dans un avion pour NY, avec une préparation d'1 mois. Cool. Pas de pression du tout. Avec beaucoup de membres de ma famille/d'amis/de collegues se moquant ouvertement de moi, c'est sur, je n'y arriverai jamais.

Je ne pourrais pas décrire le sentiment avant la course, ni pendant d'ailleurs, ou peut-etre que je peux essayer :). Je ne m'attendais pas du tout a ce genre de sentiments. D'abord, oh mon dieu, la version de New York New York de Liza Minelli si FORT dans les haut-parleurs, le coup de revolver, et 10 000 personnes autour de toi, et ca commence... Un sentiment d'appartenance, de faire partie de quelque chose d'extraordinaire...

Et puis Brooklyn, tellement de gens pour nous soutenir, on se sent comme une rock star pour un jour ! Enfin pour 10km pour moi, peut-etre 15... Parce qu'apres, oh mon dieu, la douleur se fait sentir. J'ai galeré tout le long de la traversée du Queens, et ce ***ain de Queensboro Bridge. Je pensais mourir sur celui-la. Finalement me voici sur l'ile de Manhattan, premiere avenue... Et mon mollet, il me fait si mal tout a coup, je ne peux plus courir :( Heureusement que mon pere etait la, sinon j'aurais directement fait le trajet jusqu'a Central Park en metro ! Mais on a marché, marché, marché, et oh tiens on est a Harlem, tellement de musique ! Et de la bonne en plus ! Et nous voila, dans le Bronx, et je ris, je ris a gorge déployée, pourquoi donc ? Je pense que ce sont les endorphines libérées pour aider mon corps a supporter la douleur dans le reste de mon corps... Et je suis sur la Cinquieme Avenue, je peux VOIR Central Park. Bon ben allons-y alors, finissons-en maintenant qu'on est la.. Oh mais en fait c'est LOIN ! ENFIN j'y étais, avec amis et famille tout autour de moi, une médaille autour du cou, une couverture de survie sur moi, des photos prises, je ne me rappelle plus vraiment... Mais oh ce sentiment :) JE L'AI FAIT, vite j'appelle Maman !

Et c'était fini ! Une formidable expérience, et j'étais plutot fiere de moi :). Mais, comme je l'avais dit si souvent, c'était mon premier et mon dernier marathon, c'est coché sur ma liste et j'en ai fini de la course a pied, et encore plus de la préparation pour un marathon !

A l'hotel, on a bu du vin, on a mangé des pizzas (tout a coup mon meilleur ami de ces derniers mois, Culpabilité, s'etait envolé :) ) et on s'est couché tot ! A 7 du matin, j'étais debout, et je décide donc d'aller chercher l'édition du jour du NY times, spécial marathon. J'étais en train de le lire dans l'ascenseur, et j'ai vu une pub. Un homme courant devant la ligne d'horizon des buildings de Manhattan, et ca disait simplement :
'Aujourd'hui tu penses surement ne plus jamais courir un marathon. A l'année prochaine.'

Ca a suffit. J'étais prise au piege. Le plus gros fou rire de mon pere, et le classique 'Je te l'avais dit', celui que je n'aurais pas cru, meme 5 minutes plus tot...

getting ready for the NYC marathon ! or at least I thought so...

And there I am, alone in Paris, preparing myself for a marathon. My father, as a many marathon's runner, gave me basic advice. According to him, you need 3 things to get ready for a marathon : running, eating healthy and will.

The firstthing , running, I was starting. I was really STARTING, meaning the first time I ran, it was for 3 minutes and I almost fell on the floor. But I slowly realised that your body actually remember and I was able to run after a while. Past 30 minutes easy, even 1 hour then and I even ran for 1h45, so that was ok. Following my father's advice, I used to do walk, jog than sprint, and again, increasing the time I was doing it. So that was ok, or at least I thought so...

The second thing, eating, I was more or less okay, and dealing pretty adult style with my issues, so I started losing some weight and that was good.

The third thing, will, oh well, come on, it's that big a deal, at worst I'll run/walk through in 10 hours, so what, I will do it anyway; that was what I thought. So much that every other morning, I would not go for a run, telling myself I would go the next day or the day before, and so on.


You see a problem coming here ? I did not...

A month before the actual marathon, my father signed me in a half-marathon, with some friends that were doing the NYC marathon with us. Ok, that should be okay, I should be able to do that, or should I ?

HELL NO ! I wasn't ! I fell on the floor at the 4th km, last of the last, with the car overtaking me and my desperate dad. That is when the real preparing started. I am talking waking up at 5 am, before going to work at 7am, to run for an hour or so, with a lot more sprints than walks...

So basically I was on a plane to NYC, a fat girl, having run for a month only. Great. No pressure at all. With a lot of family/friends/colleagues almost laughing at me, sure I wont be able to do that.

I could not describe the feeling before the run, nor during, well I could try :). I did NOT expect those kind of feelings. First, oh my god, Liza Minelli's New York New York so loud, then the gun shot, and 10 000 thousands people around you, and it starts... A feeling of wholeness, being part of something amazing...

Then Brooklyn, soooo many people supporting us, gee I was a rock star for a day, or more like for 10 km... 15 maybe... Because after that, oh dear lord, the pain started. I struggled through Queens, and the ****ing Queensboro bridge... I thought I could have died on this one. Finally I am on Manhattan Island, first avenue... and my leg, it hurts so much, i cant bend it, i cant run anymore... thank god my father was here, I would have gone to Central Park by tube immediately! But we walked, and walked, and walked, and oh here is Harlem with SO MUCH music ! and good one ! and here we are, in the Bronx, and I am laughing, I am laughing out loud, why is that ? I guess that were the chemicals in my brain, trying to ease the pain in, well, all the rest of my body... And I am on Fifth Avenue, I can SEE Central Park. Well let's go then, let's finish this now that we're here... Oh my god it is FAR... But here I was, with friends & family surrounding me, a medal put around my neck, some aluminium cover, some photo taken, I cant quite remember... But oh the feeling :) I did it, let me call my mom !

That was IT. A fabulous lesson of life, and I was pretty proud of myself :). But, as I said it sooooo many times before to everyone, that is the first and the only one, it is checked on my list and I am done running, and even more running marathons !

We drank wine at the hotel, ate pizzas (suddenly my last months best friend, Guilt, was weirdly gone :) ) and went to sleep very early ! At 7 am, I was up, going to the reception to get a New York Times, special marathon edition. I was reading it in the elevator, and I saw an ad. A man running with the skyline of New York behind him, and it simply said :
'Today you may feel like you'll never run a marathon again. See you next year.'

That was it. I was hooked. The biggest laugh of my father so far and the classic 'I told you so' I would not have believed even 5 minutes ago...

Rusé Daron / Ne Jamais Dire Jamais

Tout a commencé avec mon pere... Ce sournois Darounet... Il m'a sournoisement convaincue, tout comme pas mal de membres de ma famille d'ailleurs, de courir... Et pas de courir juste pour le plaisir ou la santé, nooooooon. De courir des MARATHONS !

Comment est-ce que MOI personnellement je me suis faite avoir, surtout considérant tous les problemes évoqués plus tot ? Facile.
Je suis fan de musique, et j'étais en train de lire un bouquin fantastique : Please Kill Me, de Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain. C'est un bouquin qui raconte les débuts du punk rock a New York.
Donc, évidemment, profitant d'un calme dimanche en famille (qui s'avera changer ma vie pour au moins 6 mois...), je demande riant a moitié a mon pere ce qu'il penserait d'un voyage a New York sous peu. Ce dialogue s'ensuit :

moi ' Papa, si on allait a New York bientot ? J'étais trop jeune quand j'y suis allée avec vous ! ' (oui j'ai déja eu la chance d'aller a New York, mais j'avais 12 ans, limite pour voir le coté punk rock/soirées de folie...)

Papa 'oui c'est cela'

moi 'Allez papa ! Ca serait trop bien ! Et puis t'as dit qu'on devrait visiter plus de capitales !'

C'est la que j'apercois comme une étincelle dans le regard de mon paternel, étincelle a laquelle j'aurais du accorder beaucoup plus d'importance...

Papa 'Eh bien, on pourrait aller a New York en effet... Si tu decidais de courir le marathon de New York...'

moi 'Oui c'est celaaa'

moi 'Apres tout pourquoi pas, j'ai un an pour me préparer, et puis ca n'est surement pas si difficile que ca...'

Mon Dieu, avais-je tort... Enfin bref, nous voila courant le renseignement pratique sur internet etc. Et qu'apprends-t-on ? L'édition 2008 est complete. Dommaaaaaaaaage :).
Donc, le 14 aout 2008 (et oui Papa je me rappelle de cette date funeste...), nous sommes allés nous inscrire pour l'édition 2009 du marathon le plus couru du monde. Et le 2 ou 3 janvier 2009, nous apprenions que nous avions été sélectionnés (beaucoup trop de personnes s'inscrivent alors ils tirent au sort ou je ne sais quoi. Incroyable d'ailleurs, payer pour souffrir ?! Rien que d'y penser j'ai mal...).

Et c'est a ce moment LA que la culpabilité s'est installée bien au chaud, tranquillement, dans mon ombre, pendant 11 mois...

Tricky Dad / Never Say Never

It all started with my father... The tricky bastard... He tricked me, and a lot of people of my family actually..., into running, and not just running for fun or health or something, noooooo he tricked us into running MARATHONS !

How was I personnally tricked into running a marathon, considering all the previously mentioned issues ?
Easy : I am very fond of music and reading a fantastic book for the first time a while back, 3 years ago actually. It is called Please Kill Me, by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain, and it is about the beginning of punk rock in New York City.
So obviously, at a casual Sunday lunch with my folks (which was about to change my life for at least 6 months...), I half-joking/half-not asked my dad about a trip to New York. Let me put this in a Q&A type of thing :

me ' Dad how about we go to New York soon ? I was so young when I went with you guys : ( ! ' (yes I was lucky enough to already have been there, but I was like 12, how about punk rock/party New York ?!)

dad ' Yeah right pfff '

me ' come on daddy, it could an amazing trip, we said we should visit more capital cities !'

then I saw kind of a spark in my beloved father's eyes, on which I definitely should have focused on more...

dad ' well actually, we could go to New York City, if you decided to run the New York City marathon... '

me ' Yeah right pfff '

me ' well after all, why not, I would have a year to get ready and it cannot be THAT difficult... Ok deal '

Oh dear was I wrong... Anyway we started looking for dates and all the practical things and realised that the 2008 marathon was already sold out. So, on 14 August 2008 (yes daddy I remember precisely the too infamous date...), there we went to sign in for the 2009 edition of the most well-known of all the marathons.

And on January the second or third, we learnt that we were indeed signed in (there is a whole bunch of luck in this, cause there are too many people who want to do it. Can you believe THAT ? ! Paying to suffer... Oh just the thought hurts.. )

That is when began the guilt that was going to shadow me for the next eleven months...

moi moi moi !

Bon... J'ai décidé de commencer un blog aujourd'hui. Pourquoi cela ? Parce que cette fois je vais VRAIMENT donner l'adresse de ce blog a des gens que je connais. Pourquoi vais-je faire cela ? Pour ne pas abandonner tout simplement...

Je m'appelle Marie. J'ai 24 ans. Je vis actuellement a Londres (ou je galere pour trouver un boulot PAYÉ, vivre, gagner de l'argent, etc mais tout cela n'est que details... ou pas :( ).
Mais la chose la plus importante a dire ici, c'est que je suis inscrite au marathon de Berlin 2010, qui aura lieu le 26 septembre. Donc bientot...

Mon plan : courir ce marathon en 5h30 maximum. Oui oui 'facile' vous entends-je murmurer, mais pas pour tout le monde... Et surement pas pour moi !

Mes problemes principaux : je n'aime pas le sport (a part regarder le tennis :) ), j'aime beaucoup trop la nourriture, et j'ai pas mal de problemes avec la nourriture (boulimie etc) MAIS je me suis plus ou moins sortie de ce dernier probleme.

Donc, pourquoi décider de courir un marathon alors ? Bonne question... Laissez moi vous raconter une histoire...

me me me !

Okay. So I decided to start a blog today. Big decision. Why ? Because I am going to actually give the address of this blog to people that I know. Why ? So that I won't quit...

I am Marie. I am 24. I currently live in London (where I struggle to find a job THAT IS PAID, live, earn money in any LEGAL way, but these are minor details...).
Most important thing : I am signed in for the 2010 Berlin marathon, which is going to happen on 26 September. So pretty soon :s

My plan : running it in 5:30 max. Yeah yeah easy you might think, but not for everyone...

My main issues : I dont like sport (apart from watching tennis :) ), I love food, I struggle with food (boulimia etc) BUT I kind of got through this last one...

Why decide to run a marathon then ? Good question...

Let me take you a while back...