Marathon X

So far, this blog space has failed to live up to its name. I've written about a wide variety of subjects, but not running. This is mostly due to the fact that my running activities have been at a low ebb since a good number of months. A persistent hamstring injury kept me grounded for a number of weeks, and by the time I had re-started my training, from scratch, in mid-July I was brought down by a fever and was forced to take several more weeks off training. I have already had the occasion to remark before that this has not been an easy summer for me.

I did, however, manage to stage a decent recovery, which may just be good enough to reach the objective that I had set myself before summer. I had been trying to decide where to run my next marathon, and the most convenient date looked like late February, exactly the date of the Malta marathon. And what could be more appropriate, than to run my Xth marathon in my home country, where I ran my first seven marathons?

Today morning, for the first time since my injury, I have done a long run of 1h20m, for a distance of about 15km. If there are no further serious mishaps this winter, I should just be able to build my long runs up to a marathon on 1 March, so as to combine a late winter break in Malta (at a time when we would have grown utterly sick of the dreary grey and wet Belgian winter) with my Xth marathon, which would be simply fantastic.

There. Now that I've committed myself, I'll have to give it my very best try.