Isn't it funny how times change in what feels like a blink of an eye? A few years ago, my inbox was awash with incredibly stylish emails from aspirational lifestyle brands like Lombok, The White Company and Graham and Green and my regular magazine preference was Elle Decor and Living Etc. Yes I was a new home owner and keen to give my home the ultimate, stylish makeover.
Roll on a few years and these solicited emails had been unsubscribed and replaced with colourful, cute, yummy mummy inspiring emails from brands such as Jojo Maman Bebe, Mamas and Papas, Blooming Marvellous and The Little White Company. Yes my bump had taken over my world and my inbox, taking me into a whole new exciting phase of my life.
Add another year and the grey times loomed. Cute baby emails were deleted and the new inbox interest contained hard lines and grown up brands like Laithwaites Wine Club, Dating Direct, Hotel Chocolat and my magazine subscription also grew up and became serious. Late night, drunken analysis of Psychologies magazine was the norm and these desperate times found me trying to identify me within each article whilst surviving on a diet of chocolate, coffee, red wine and cigarettes. Yes the dark clouds of the divorce era loomed large across my world.
Who could have guessed that a few years later my inbox would be awash with spritely emails from Running Bug, Sports Direct, Adidas and Virgin London Marathon. My magazine subscription would have progressed to Women's Running (and, shhhhh, the occasional secret Closer purchase) and the colour would have found its way not only into my life by my cheeks also. It seems I have caught the "bug" and my world is, for now, all about running not away from but towards something; a massive 26.2 mile sized goal. And a goal that I had, until tonight, considered my biggest challenge ever.
But really on reflection and having re-read the first three paragraphs I realise that this really isn't that big a challenge. It is no more challenging than becoming a parent, no harder than the mental anguish of divorce, and certainly no more time consuming than renovating a home. And it actually pales into insignificance when compared to what my dear sis-in-law (and many others fighting the Big C) are dealing with. And so with that clarity I realise that I absolutely have it in me to cover the distance, somehow!
And if only I had signed off my blog there. But I HAD to question what might be the next phase of my life. And it is now that I realise, with a heavy heart, that my next phase is emails from Saga, Gray and Osbourn and Polygrip dental glue and my reading matter is Peoples Friend and the Daily Mail. Maybe its time to ask coach for another baby and all the colour and youthful exuberance it brings? If only my thighs didn't hurt so much!
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