Wednesday, 24th February – 60 days to go

Today is a rest day and I have absolutely no intention of sneaking in an extra run. I believe this is a temptation for “real” runners; clearly, I’m not a “real” runner. In any case, there has been snow overnight and the pavements look too treacherous to risk a run.

I almost catch up on Marathon Talk by listening to week 3 and 4 that I’ve already downloaded and round it off with this week’s episode as well. Only weeks 5 and 6 and I’m up to date. I wonder if they realised Tony would be such a nutter! I think a compilation of Tony’s Trials at some point in the future is on the cards.

I also decide to direct my reading more towards running, fitness and perhaps something motivational or inspiring. Liz travels on the train quite a bit and sometimes manages to read rather than work on her journeys, so she keeps us supplied with new reads. I don’t read them all as some are a bit too girly for my tastes (you can usually tell from the cover). I tend to make a pile of the new ones that appeal to me and add books that I want to re-read to this pile. The pile is currently in danger of tottering over and represents about six weeks of solid reading. For some time now I’ve been the slowest reader in our house. You want your kids to grow and develop but I didn’t really want to be in the slow reader group of one. The first sign was “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. This was the first one where JK had decided she had so much money that she could afford to be self-indulgent – 600 plus pages. George was about eight at the time and we agreed that he got the book in daylight hours and I could read it when he was sleeping. I imagined that I’d finish it ages before him. In the end I was seriously considering administering a sleeping draught to his cocoa to give me the edge. I was reading until four in the morning to keep up with the little blighter. Harry has now gone the same way, though we don’t compete as I just can’t get interested in the Darren Shan books.

It’s not only the reading either. I’m also shortest in our house. This is familiar territory. I wonder what psychological damage was inflicted on me by my three older and taller siblings who referred to me as “the runt of the litter” for several years. Still, I’m the only one of the four of us in the “normal” range (just) so who’s laughing now, freaks?

I reluctantly allow the monsters and murderers of Miami to unleash their mayhem by returning the last two Dexter books to the shelves. Crimes in Richmond will go unsolved and the author and Scarpetta must wait to resolve their confused sexual orientation for awhile longer as “Blowfly” is similarly set aside (you’d have thought they’d’ve sorted themselves out long ago). Someone else will have to talk about Kevin as I haven’t got the time.

I gather together our collection of running and fitness books. I find these a difficult read; I can only dip into them rather than try and read from cover to cover. I’ll start to work my through them over the next couple of weeks and I hope can take on board enough knowledge to help me understand what I’m doing to myself by aiming to run a marathon.