Petite Feet Runaway

Sister Sister start in Lindau Do you think I can train for a marathon in 10 weeks? Came the message from my small sister, Hillary. Of course I replied in the affirmative. What did I know, I've only ever trained for my first marathon and that was probably ten years ago. Plus, I'd always liked the idea of running her first marathon with her and I was up for another holiday. Hillary had picked the Three Lander Marathon; a marathon that started in Germany, ran through Austria, into Switzerland and then finished in Austria. That sounds pretty cool. Hillary flew from New York, we flew from the buzzing metropolis of the Scottish Borders. It was a good excuse to see each other and doesn't everyone think of Germany, Austria and Switzerland when they think of awesome exciting holidays? No? Let me remind you of those giant pretzels (bretzils?) then.  Buggies were not allowed in the marathon which meant Scott could not run. He looked disappointed to hear this news. I'm not

I entered the Marathon Hebrides (the first full marathon to be held on the Isle of Harris) while I was still pregnant. Obviously pregnant with my first baby and therefore had grand illusions of what motherhood would be like. I bought a treadmill so that I could train when my future baby 'napped.'  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, said my baby boy. At five months old, he doesn't nap and wakes up every 1-2 hours at night to feed (or cuddle, or just say hi, or something). We haven't even thought about weaning. Oops. Oh well, we'd booked the accommodation, ferry tickets, car hire and my ma to come babysit from New Zealand. My postpartum recovery was not as easy as I'd expected. Turns out running and swimming until the baby pops out aids neither labour nor recovery. Should have sat on my arse and eaten more cake. My training had to start with walk/jogging 1km at 8 week postpartum, a few weeks break as directed by the physio and then a pretty swift leap to 10km after 12 wee