Tuesday 31 August 2010

A busy Summer but not running












It's been a summer of frustration with regards running and an injury spell that has been ongoing since before Christmas when I slipped and twisted my knee. I made the same mistake all runners do and kept trying to run it off. Some injuries you can do that but I should have known sooner to stop and from March onwards I resigned myself to a long period on the side lines.

During the summer months every so often a walk and a jog was enough to tell me it was not right yet. Three weeks ago I started walking and jogging and have been running every second day and today I managed four miles in just under 32 mins.

So we shall see how things progress over the next few months and I have no plans at this moment in time. The Fling and Speyside Way never happened this year and the way things have been running wise I am very reluctant to plan for next year. I will see how things are at the end of the year.

We were in the States in April when the volcano erupted and caused all flights to be cancelled. This caused us to be delayed for 7 days and we were on the first flight out of New York when they resumed flying, arriving back in Scotland less than 24 hours before the start of the Fling. It might have been a nervous time if I had been fully fit and ready to run the race.

Away from running, it has been a very busy summer. I am Captain at Lenzie Golf Club this year and that itself has been just about a full time job. With Craig playing more golf than ever all over the country I remained here with him as Alison and Laura went over to Florida for the summer months. Laura went off to her summer camp as she did last year and spent 2 weeks snorkeling, boating and learning about the dolphins and turtles at Clearwater Marine Aquarium which is a rescue, rehabilitate and release centre.

Craig and I joined them for a few weeks then Craig flew home himself for the first time and even managed to get a free upgrade to BusinessFirst Class over the Atlantic. This is the boy who got lost walking to our local library just 1 mile away but managed to travel by himself from Tampa to New York and then over to Glasgow no problem.

This year he won the Lenzie Junior Club Championship for the 3rd time and he also won the Cawder Club Championship. He is a member there too. Every weekend and also a lot of mid weeks all summer is taken up with going to golf competitions and with me tied up at the golf club as Captain it has meant a lot of juggling things about.

I was not able to watch him win at Cawder as I had to attend an annual challenge match against the New Club in St Andrews, but my friend Gordon was there and he videoed it and sent me text updates all day as it was 36 holes. I played my worst round of golf in years that day as my mind was not on my game but following Craig's match via text messages.

So, hopefully the knee is going to hold up and allow me to get some runs in. I think if I hadn't been so busy with other things I would have been more fed up about the situation.

Above are some photos from our summer. Laura finished primary school with a win at her last sports day and started Lenzie Academy a few weeks ago. While on holiday, we went to our first baseball game and enjoyed the experience. We all had a great time with friends and the evening included beer, hot dogs and ice cream and Laura getting eaten by the team mascot. As we live right on the beach, most nights we a treated to amazing sunsets. The group is ourselves with Bill and Fay Crawford along with Tod and Sharon Roop's 13 grandchildren! Bill and Fay left Kilmarnock for the USA nearly 50 years ago and are our neighbours and friends on Sand Key. Bill and Fay take great care of us when we are over and we arrive to our fridge full of Fay's wonderful home baking. We always leave with Fay's oatie crunchie cookies for the journey home. They do enjoy it when we smuggle over some haggis for them and Cadbury's chocolate and Mars Bars!! Sharon and Tod are friends of Bill and Fay's who we meet up with when we are over. Their 2 daughters and sons-in-law with their 13 children were down visiting them this summer and we all met up once again.

Anyway thats all for now hopefully I can post more often about running matters in the coming months.