Dutch courage?

I don't know at what point this year I was transformed from being a low-energy layabout who spends most of his time in front of the tv into a low-energy layabout who climbs mountains at the weekend and takes up jogging (when not spending time in front of the tv) but something happened and now I'm boring everyone with tales of jogging shoes and breathing exercises. It could be a general dissatisfaction with turning 35 (any day now) and not really having much to say for myself or a desire to return to some level of fitness (as if there was ever much of a level to return to) that brought it all on. Steve thinks I might have been bitten by a radioactive spider but I think that was somebody else.

Whatever it was, I now run several times a week and have been amazed to find that I've been getting better at it. From gasping after 2 minutes the first time I went out and needing to walk for long periods between runs to catch my breath, I can now run about 3km up Chesterfield Avenue without stopping, then take a short break and do it again in the opposite direction. I'm hoping that in the next week or so I'll increase that to 4km and so on..



I'd better because tonight I registered to do a half marathon in Amsterdam in October. October 21st in fact, which is less than 3 months away. I make it 13 weeks from yesterday. One week for each mile! Shit - that's not much time is it? The good thing is that if I cancel before September I can get most of the money back. The bad news is that I don't want to cancel and really want to do this thing. Is this my mid-life crisis already? Couldn't I have just gotten my ear pierced and a 21 year old girlfriend? Don't answer that.

Prior to last month I couldn't run a tap, never mind a half marathon. On the plus side, I've never been to Amsterdam so it should be nice to see what it's like over there.

Anyway, with 13 weeks to go, I'll be popping up an update once in a while. The good thing is that I've thought of lots of bad puns that I can use for titles relating to running and Amsterdam. Should keeop me amused for a while.

Alternatively, knowing me, I'll never speak of it again...