A quiet day - though not through choice!

I had a lovely meal out with some old Central AC friends last night to celebrate our pal Helen’s birthday. Some of the girls went on to the pub afterwards but I just came home because, as the night went on, I started to lose my voice. Typical!! I join a new singing group then get struck down with bloody laryngitis!! My voice held out long enough to recite the wee birthday poem I’d written for Helen then enjoy the meal, and all the banter that went with it, but by the end of the night I was hoarse. Consequently, today I’ve been sooking all kinds of lozenges in the vain hope that my voice will be back to some kind of normality in time for tomorrow night’s rehearsal.

The developing laryngitis aside, it was great to catch up with my old running friends. However, any occasion that we get together is full of mixed emotions for me. I’m always happy to see everyone and we always have a good laugh, but being with them all also reminds me of how much I miss my running days, so the get-togethers are always tinged with a wee bit of sadness too. It’s weird; I live in a house where running plays a pretty central role - Ross and Alex are still committed members of the athletics club, there’s hardly a day goes by that one of them doesn’t go out for a run,  and hardly a weekend goes by that we’re not away to some race or another - but it’s really only when I’m with my running friends, or reminiscing with my old running partner Elaine,  that I get a bit maudlin about the fact that I can’t run any more.

I used to love running. I was never that great at it and didn’t really compete (except in things like the Women’s 10k and Race for Life), but I loved it. I especially enjoyed it when our whole family used to go to training on Tuesday and Thursday nights. There was a time when all five of us were running seriously and our lives pretty much revolved around athletics and the club – we’ve got loads of great memories from that period in our lives. Not just of training nights, but also of the many social occasions, get-togethers and trips away (which, I’m pleased to say, we still sometimes join in with). The girls that I was with last night and I were part of the endurance group at the club - some still are - and we’d sometimes join in with the serious training but, more often than not, we would just go for a long run. As I said when I was reciting Helen’s poem last night; if exercising your tongue made you run faster, we’d all have been elite athletes by now!  I think I’ve probably mentioned here before (because I do tend to moan a bit about it!) that bits of my bobs have let me down and, for health reasons, I can’t do high-impact exercise any more. That rules out running and aerobics; two things that I used to thoroughly enjoy. However, it’s not that big a deal in the whole scheme of things and there are plenty of other sports that I could get involved in, if only I could motivate myself off my backside to get on with them! I half-heartedly get on my bike sometimes, and I go for walks – but nothing does it for me the way that running used to. I think I’ll always hanker after it.

Anyhow, enough of the maudlin! Today’s been a really quiet day – mainly because I’ve not been able to make any noise – but a really nice day. Ross was away climbing up The Cobbler with some pals and Gordon was away to the movies. We’ve never really done the big family Easter Sunday thing, and mum's down south visiting her sister anyway, so it was good just to sit about and do, well, nothing really – sook some lozenges, watch Alex working out in the garden, read the papers and faff about on the computer. Topped off with a beer (very soothing to the throat..) and barbeque. That was about the extent of it. Yup, it’s been a lovely lazy Easter Sunday...

...though it would’ve been a great day for a leisurely Sunday run...!