I must remember this

*blinks, looks around* Where did that week go?
If there were any numbers starting with M I could do a (day of the week) (number starting with the same letter) list of Stuff That Keeps Popping Into My Head, like all the cool kids do. There should be a day starting with STKPIMH. See to it, will you?
While I was walking during the marathon can it really be two weeks ago?, I stopped at a water station to refill my waist bottle. One of the volunteers, a real lemon sucker lady - you know those people, you can tell their most-used phrase is "you'd think they would have...." and their habitual expression is what my dear grandma would have described as "having a bad smell under her nose" - oh come on, you know these women - said to me, is this this your first marathon?
Yes
And will it be your last?
NO! I said to her.
Not that I have decided about this yet, and I certainly hadn't at the time, but I wanted to refute her assumption that I was walking and at the back of the field because I was unprepared. Slow doesn't mean unprepared, lady. Slow means slow. That's all.
Cool marathon day thing #946 - my friend M whipping a champagne glass from her bag at the finish, and her partner G filling and refilling it with g@tor@de as fast as I could drink it. That's fabulousness in action, people.

And she took this great photo! Thanks M!

Another I must remember this: I was walking back to the bar after the marathon with my mum and the Spousal Unit. There's a waist-high glass barrier outside, and I was really really surprised to see lots of muscles moving in my legs! I said to J, who knew they were there? He answered, everyone except you!
You know the strangest post-marathon feeling? Not, as you might think, the stairs at work ow ow ow, but noticing it was October 13th. I'd focused, fixated even, on October 11th for so long - and then - so suddenly - it was gone! I was on The Other Side! It felt quite surreal, although that may also have been partially due to the monster case of post-race vagueness I've had. Smiling at nothing, pleasantly wafty and more than a little bit dreamlike.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've also been feeling a little bit lost this last fortnight. I was thinking (as you do), oh woe! woe! My mojo is gone, gone, never to be seen again! I simply cannot pile 10000000000 things into the day and charge through them all like a bull at a gate like I could two weeks ago! Oh woe!
But then it struck me: the tumble-through-the-day run/work/study/family/rinse-and-repeat craziness of this winter wasn't meant to be sustainable. I did it because I had to; because with Very Slow Marathon training and uni on top of My Actual Life I may possibly I admit nothing have come fairly close to maybe having bitten off the tiniest little bit more than I could chew. Now my first VSM is sparkling on the necklace of life's most golden days, my assignments are in and I just have to prepare for my exams. I've been swimming again and doing weights and riding my bike outside instead of on the trainer. I can do things "later"! No wonder things seem a bit aimless. I'm not used to having "later" available!
I might not have it for long though.....*cue thrilling music*
We're waiting on some Very Exciting News this week which could see our lives take a very rapid right-hand turn. If it does come off, there will be much, much over-excited blogging coming out of Chateau LBTEPA. I'll keep you posted.
More anon, stargazers!