You Only Live Once

You only live once and bucket list are two statements I wish I'd never heard, I hate them both and yet I hear them all too regularly. Why have I titled this blog, with it then, well it's also the title of a Strokes song which happened to be the song playing on my iPod today when I realised that I'd nailed the half marathon, that absolutely nothing could derail me, that things where just going right. And right they went, to the point of crossing the line 35 seconds quicker than I had hoped to do and running easily the most consistent long run I have ever completed. Am I happy? You bet. I have to give a fair amount of credit to the pacing function on my new Garmin, going at the start at a more manageable pace meant that I ran consistently all day.My support crew where great, making sure I had a fresh drink and gel whenever needed, I also have to give some massive credit to all the park run crew, people who are always happy to smile and wave out on course and where waiting at the end to cheer me over the line. They are some seriously good runners, but most importantly really good people. It's fairly safe to say that without parkrun today would not have happened for me. Anyway back to the point of this post, I know plenty of people have been through dark times on long runs, I posted about this recently, but surely there must be plenty of times when things go really well, when the preparation pays off and even when that song comes on and you're only at the 11km mark you suddenly know that the next ten is just a matter of staying the path, there is no doubt, no darkness, just people running towards you wondering what the hell that fat guy is so happy about.