End of chapter two/ getting back in the game

After a wonderfully refreshing week away from it all, I now need to get back in the game. We achieved all our targets - bought too many Christmas presents, put up the tree, gave notice of marriage at the registry office, and I even managed a couple of good runs. I also learned that the 'emergency stop' button on the treadmill is really freaking easy to accidentally knock so you slam groin-first into the machine at several miles an hour, in front of a room full of witnesses. We live and we learn.


But now it's time to get serious again. With Christmas fast approaching, I need to drop a bit more weight so I can enter the new year at a good size and not have too much to worry about besides training. At the moment, I'm hovering between 180 and 190 pounds. This is lowest I've weighed in about ten years, but it's still not low enough. From all the reading I've been doing, actual professional - and prepared, cough - marathon runners weigh somewhere in the region on 150 pounds. I think my upper body alone weighs that much! So it's time to get my game face on.

It looks a lot like this, actually.

Time to focus. The year is rapidly drawing to a close (I blinked and missed September, what happened there?) and I still have one big target to achieve before then. I want to reach the halfway mark before 2019 dawns. At the moment, my best is still eleven miles. I want to hit thirteen in the next three weeks. It's not going to be easy - as I write this, the clouds outside are gathering  for yet another massive downpour - but it's got to be done. I can't avoid the crap weather if I'm going to go for it. The treadmill only gets me so far (and my groin still hurts).

Three weeks to the end of the year. Three weeks to hit my personal goal.

One hundred and forty two days until the marathon.

Sure thing, Groot.