Just back from a week in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. Great week, stayed in a lovely hotel by the sea, hired a car for the week and toured the entire island while managing a few days by the pool or on the beach. That's the good bit...As to be expected there were a few hiccups along the way. The first was on day one, in fact hour one... After checking into our hotel we took a walk along the main street, I was sporting a fashionable pair of flip flops that I had worn with uber comfort earlier that year. Something must have change between then and now because after 20 minutes of strolling I felt a flip flop strap on my left foot agitate the skin near the toe next to my big toe... that's a lot of wordadge to say that they were no longer comfy!! Choosing to ignore it I got back to the hotel with a mother of a blister, not what I needed a week before the marathon.
The days that followed were fantastic,;half day at the pool/beach here, half a day pottering around the island there, a submarine trip, the odd museum and occasional gallery with a volcano just for laughs. What could possibly go wrong?
Two days before the end of the holiday was hot, very hot and we left the balcony door open for much of the evening. It never occurred to us the some tiny winged beasts might sneak in attracted by the light inside but that's what explained a high pitched buzz that I heard whizz past my ear as I turned out the light. I immediately turned on the light... it had to be a mosquito, I couldn't see it but I knew it was there. What do you do? Well I got up and tried to find it for a while to no avail. Perhaps it had gone? Maybe it had flown out under the door, they're tiny little things after all. Besides, what damage could it do? With only a few days to the marathon the worst it could do would be to bite my big toe!
Next morning I woke with a swollen big toe... the bugger had read my mind and gone for something that I really needed to run a marathon with. Now I had a healing blister and a massive mosquito bite on the same foot, if someone was trying to give me a message I can think of less painful ways...
The next morning I woke with an ear infection... another message? The flight home was on time and passed quickly. When I got home I had to decide if I was going to run. The marathon was in two days and I was feeling rotten, my head felt like it had been stuffed with an over inflated rugby ball. I decided to give it another day. Next morning I woke feeling just as rotten but I really wanted to run so I decided to give it a few more hours, the expo closed at 6pm that evening and that was the last chance to pick up my number.
As the clock ticked towards 6pm I knew I wouldn't be fit the next day and accepted that it wasn't to be. Never mind, there will be plenty more. In fact I have started planning for the Barcelona marathon in March. All the training I had done for Dublin should make my Barcelona training easy, just got to stick to the plan... and this time I'm moving from a novice to and intermediate plan which only allows one rest day per week, yikes!!
