It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, and I have a very good excuse for not updating recently. Thought I would just drop a line now to explain where I am at, and once everything has settled fully, get back to regular posting – news I am sure will please and enthral my prodigious global audience (just in case anyone is mistaken that was of course pure sarcasm, my audience maybe global due to the nature of the internet, but in term of size it is definitely closer to pathetic rather than prodigious, and most would surely describe my musings as something you need to endure rather than something that enthrals.

So after almost two years of not racing I was completely focused on the upcoming Ironman taking place early July in Vitoria, Spain. I was on an up, had shaken off my injuries, dropped my bad habits and was dropping significant pandemic pounds from my aging body. The milestones were being ticked off and while I was some way from my fitness levels of a few years back, I was confident I would be able to complete the race. Now the astute amongst you will notice my use of the past tense in the previous sentence – this is due to the fact that early last week, on waking from my afternoon nap I discovered a mail had arrived from the race organisers, postponing the event until September, to a date I knew I would not be able to make

I’ll be honest, it hit me like a brick dropped from a bridge on to a speeding car. Totally floored me, hadn’t seen it coming at all as Europe has been rapidly opening up and races had started to happen. All the focus and sacrifices of the last few months were thrown out the window and I was pissed off, depressed and utterly demotivated. I kept it together for a couple of days, but am ashamed to admit I then had a couple of more days nursing a drink and a smoke, feeling sorry for myself. Sure I have had races cancel before, we all have especially in the past year, but this time the event had come to represent the way back from all the lows of the pandemic and injuries, and I had dedicated myself entirely to making the grade, so suddenly losing it just as it looked achievable, pulled the rug from under me entirely.

Blah – who cares right? Well, I think whatever entity has the unenviable task of being my guardian angel must’ve cared, because after trying to rouse myself a bit by (unsuccessfully) looking for other races I could do and basically giving up on the season, yesterday I received another email from the race organisers, saying that unfortunately their new date wouldn’t work and therefore they had to move the race again, this time to the following week. Now for many this must have been bad news and I am sure the organisers are genuinely sorry for the confusion and inconvenience caused, but for me it suddenly opened up a chance to get back on track, because with a bit of bobbing and weaving on my part, the new date is a date I will be able to make! YEHAA!

So there we are. I have had a week or so down time, no real harm done albeit with a bit of extra weight regained and some bad habits sneaking in for a couple of days, but I now have a glorious full 16 weeks ( as opposed to 7) to prepare for my first full ironman since 2018. I can allow my stiff joints to recover a bit as I drop back down on my training, and restart the build process.  And who knows, with my rejigged schedule I maybe able to fit in a 3 day, “MdS practice race” in November, which had looked increasingly unlikely as time had rolled by. Also there is an added bonus of me hopefully being able to get a few days away with my son during summer, something that probably would not have happened if my race had happened in July

Funny how things work out sometimes. Maybe better I don’t get so focused on training again, just in case further shenanigans occur, but this really is wonderful example of positivity coming out of something negative, and I am determined to make the most of it and be thankful for my second chance.