Post-marathon 'recovery'

That's it. Nearly 4 weeks has passed since the event that consumed most of my tiny brain since October 2013. London Marathon 2014 has been and gone and real life has resumed.

My super-short London marathon
race recap: thumbs up!

After jotting down the 10 lessons that I learned on marathon day I was planning to write a race report. But then I sat down and thought about what I had to say different from the 35,999 other people who ran the London Marathon. And, to be honest, there wasn't much so I didn't want to bore you all! It was a great day: amazing atmosphere, busy course at points, overwhelming and emotional, and I highly recommend it for the experience alone. 

The London Marathon is organised to function like a well-oiled machine. Unlike me, who functioned like an extremely rusty old machine for the last 10K of the marathon, but I'm putting that down to the fact that: a) I spent the last two weeks of taper in the US consuming copious amount of food and b) it was a marathon - the wheels are supposed to come off around mile 20 otherwise you're doing it wrong (there is no evidence for this, just my own marathoning experiment with an n = 1. Statistically the most poorly powered study, you'll find. But this is my blog, so my 'evidence' it is!)

Other than that, yeah. Not much else to say. I did it and I'm unbelievably proud of myself and extremely grateful for all who donated to my last-minute charity fundraising. You guys rock.

So, what now? 

Well, after having to walk backwards down stairs for a while, and eventually giving in to a sports massage which hurt like hell (in the kinda bad-but-good way) to see me right, I laced the trainers back up and took it easy... Ha! Are you joking? I'm not so good at moderation - no, no. Instead laced up the trainers and headed off last weekend with the Team Naturally Run crew, plus special guest 'the boy', to run the Geneva half marathon. Three weeks after a full marathon. As you do.

This race was booked yonks ago before I truly came to understand what effects the marathon has on your body, but it was the boy's first half marathon attempt so I said I'd be happy to take it a little easier and pace him round in about 2h10.

Running through the Geneva countryside was fantastic (if a little chilly), and there was even a pipe band playing - it seems there are no bounds to the reach of the SNP to get YES votes for the independence referendum:

2h10 was what I told the boy we were aiming for, but I had the glorious watch of pace-telling magic (AKA a TomTom), which meant I was in charge and decided that little white lies about pace were OK in this situation. We settled in to a nice and easy '10min/mile' (read 9.40min/mile) pace for the first 10K. The boy was concerned about the level of people overtaking us but I told him not to worry, to trust the pace and wait and see. 

Smile if you know the pace
we're ACTUALLY doing!

I decided we should kick it up a gear a bit to '9.45min/mile' (9.20min/mile) pace until the final 5k arrived, which is my favourite point of a well-paced half: when you get to overtake everyone who elbowed past at break-neck speed at the 3 mile point. Now ye shall feel my elbows people! Mwahaha! 

Crazed half-marathon 'baddie laugh' over, and at 2h03 mins after crossing the start line we held hands and crossed the finish line together (all together now: ahhhhhh!). Not bad for a boy who hasn't run more than 6 miles in the past few months! Celebration was some weird cereal-y stuff (hmm) and some chocolate marble cake (yes!), plus a hug with what we thought was a giant peanut, but turned out to be a tupperware water bottle...

It's a giant peanut, right?! The orange
thing, I mean - the yellow thing is the boy...

All in - a great race and I discovered that a weekend race-cation is not a bad way to 'recover' from a marathon. Well, that is if you don't count the fact that I now have a stinking cold. But I've decided that these events are NOT related to my weekend running. Again, my blog: my evidence. Albeit that in this case there is none.

So yes, onwards and upwards post-marathon. Despite being worried I'd have nothing to talk about once the marathon was over, I seem to have suitably filled my sporting calendar with enough events to keep me ticking over. Next, it's just that small matter of the triathlon in that I'm signed up for. In THREE WEEKS TIME!! What on earth possessed me to do that?!

Katy | City Girl Fit

Living in the trees with peacocks: a secret country hideway

After my half marathon adventures I headed out to East Sussex with the boy for some country-style R&R! Being Scots we miss the green stuff and fresh air, and need our regular fix or we resort to Mel Gibson-esque blue-face-painted warriors screaming something about freedom. Not pretty for anyone...

We had booked one of the eco lodges at Fair Oak Farm after reading a great review online, and we were not disappointed. Our home for the next three nights was small but perfectly formed wooden lodge on stilts, built in to the trees and situated on an ancient tree line.

Eco Lodge at Fair Oak Farm. Boy not included.

Not only was it absolutely gorgeous inside and out, but the farm had some lively residents in the form of five or so peacocks, one of whom had just had three chicks! When Penny, the owner of the farm, showed us to our lodge she mentioned that we might hear some tapping, but "that'll just be the peacocks!" haha - we laughed - very funny! She wasn't wrong... before long we had these two guests at the door:

Darling, there's some peacocks at the door...

That view (sometimes with peacocks, sometimes without) was what we woke up to every morning. Some mornings we just sat in bed with a coffee marvelling at the view, it was so beautiful.

The weather was fairly grim over our stay - typical after the glorious summer we've just had! - but we managed a few country/hillside walks in the area, and there were some paths with signposts around (although without a map it's not that intuitive, so we will definitely take one next time!). We also ventured to Bodiam Castle, a 14th century moated castle that's only a 30 minute drive away from the lodges. It's quite something to behold...

The lodges have a small but perfectly formed kitchen for all your self catering needs, but we ate out one night at the nearby (10 minute drive away) Middle House Hotel - a perfect, traditional country style pub with a great atmosphere and rustic, hefty portions of locally sourced food. What more could you ask for?

We loved our stay, and are already planning our return trip. With various self-catering options from the lodges to 6-person barnhouses, we might even let our friends in on the secret and invite them along! These lodges really are a hidden gem, so shhh!, don't tell anyone...

Katy | City Girl Fit

We paid for our trip to Fair Oak Eco Lodges and all opinions are my own.