Do You Believe in Coincidence? Or, Procrastination! I'll Put That Off til Tomorrow

[OldManRunning]

Several significant things happened last week.One after reading the Runners World column The Flamingo Diaries by Lisa Jackson I decided to download her book 'Your Pace or Mine'. I am an Audible fan and love being able to listen to books whilst doing other things. I've got through 100's.

I listened to Lisa and all her inspiring contributors over the next 2 days and admired the resilience and dedication shown by them all. I recommend the book highly.

I decided to make a plan for future running on the back of it.

I may not have a back story like some of those featured nor the ability or drive to pull off some of their feats but I could do what I could do.

So I decided to plan a HM in November to coincide with my 68th birthday and raise money for Ovarian cancer; I have my reasons. I would then run a marathon next year for a suicide charity; again I have my reasons.

Procrastinating over, training started.

Now for coincidence.

Saturday I ran parkrun. On my results page on the 5k app I noticed the following.

It was my 11th pr, it showed I had completed 55k in pr kilometres and my PB at pr was 28:28. My birthday is 28/11/55.

Not unexpectedly adverts for the London Marathon started to appear on FB so I thought why not. I pressed the button and went to the site. I looked at the charity entry page and found next year's main sponsor is the Samaritan's.

Yes I entered the ballot.

I know I will be extremely lucky to get a place but if it's not to be then there are many other marathons in delightful places.

But like on the 2/8/22 I took my first step on C25k I have now taken my first step on doing my little bit 👍😁

By the way for those of you who collect all the pr letters and other acheivements I got the Palindrome one Saturday with 31:13 😂

[Teresa1632 Graduate10]

Ooh, it looks like the numbers might align for you!! 🤞 I've entered the ballot too, woukd love to do it. If I was lucky enough to get in, I'd still raise money for charity - but without the pressure of the huge amounts required by the marathon charities.

[OldManRunning Graduate10 in reply to Teresa1632]

Yes those do seem a bit of a challenge to raise. Good luck with the ballot though 😀

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

What more can I say but WOW! I wish you luck in the ballot, and your training for these longer distances, HM is my goal this year so I will follow your journey with interest

[OldManRunning Graduate10 in reply to SueAppleRun]

Thank you WillowandSola. I will keep you updated 😀👍