"Done and dusted" - What next?

Now that the dust has settled on my Fling-finish and the bottle of sparkling has been emptied, how do I feel one week after?

First of all a big thank you again to Ellen & Murdo and all the other organizers, marshals and supporters. It was a great race and I need not have worried about my drop bags as everything was where it should be and I was given my bags without delay every time. (Not that I need to have worried about any "delay" given my time!) I thought the timing chip was brilliant, so small, comfortable around your wrist and no need to attach a number to your shirt.
I am still proud of myself that I have actually finished the Fling and in a good time for me. I'm not into statistics really, but I was quite happy to see that my best placing for each section was in fact the last one with my worst being the first. So I guess I was pacing myself well given my "limited ability" ;-) .
But my sense of achievement is even bigger because I managed to do it just with my drop bags, carrying a far too heavy bag pack (weighing between 1.5-2kg) and without anyone particular waiting for me on the route (apart from Caroline who was marshalling at Drymen). My total stoppage time was 45-50min taking 15min at Balmaha getting a bit quicker with sorting myself out and only needing 10min at the other stops and a bit longer again at Beinglas. For me it was a bit of a self-experience adventure and it went well! I ran most of it on my own apart from some miles towards Drymen where I was chatting to a few people. And I really enjoyed the experience. It was great to be part of the race and seeing the other runners, getting from checkpoint to checkpoint, hearing encouragement on the way and then being on my own again, enjoying the great scenery, the weather, the fact that I was actually running this race. Don't get me wrong I would have enjoyed company as well, but as it happened noone else was moving at my pace.
I was doing it to prove to myself that I could, Thomas always believed I could and kept saying I was "made for endurance events"! There was one point after Balmaha when I thought why again are you doing this? You can enjoy a great day out running in the hills even if you "only" cover 30M, why do you have to cover 53m?! My achilles was beginning to hurt and I was worried about the damage it might do. But I blocked these thoughts out and just kept moving forward and soon forgot all about it while I enjoyed being part of the race as a runner.

Talking about it to your family and colleagues though brings you quickly down to earth as they just can't get how you would ever do anything like it. At work some girls are just getting themselves fit enough to walk the 5K Race for Life so 53M is just far too crazy. My sister's comment was: "So you took 5 hours longer than Thomas for the SAME distance?!" I guess that sums it up! :-)

I had a great run with 2 girls from the club yesterday, 7.5M around the Greenock Cut, and they wanted to know everything as Yvonne had been to the finish and saw Thomas coming in. That was great and I could relive all the excitement again. And Thomas is working hard to get them to enter for next year!
And yes, by the way, I am running again, my legs feel fine and they have been since Thursday. So that's good news! But I will also be back on my rollerblades next week for the 1st time this year. The Lochwinnoch Loops have started again so I will use it as cross-training.

Our next adventure is a 3-day WHW tour in 3 weeks. Given our time difference though (thanks sis for pointing it out!) I have decided to skip the first leg to Beinglas and take the little ferry from Ardlui, walk into Beinglas and spend a leisurely afternoon until Thomas arrives. After all I'm not training for the WHWR!
And at the moment I think I won't be in the near future either. Walking/running along the loch side and then through Crianlarich forest later when everything was hurting I was in total awe of all those who carry on after Tyndrum in the WHWR with another 42M in front! Incredible! Mind you it is just 2 years nearly to the day
that I ran my first marathon and thought that was incredible! So don't quote me on this.

I'm looking forward to the Devil though. I love the route and I now know I can do it, it is "only" 42M after all! :-)

Then comes our biggest adventure yet, the CCC! And it is really more a "holiday madness" thing, while we are there, why not give this a go?! I knew if I could not finish the Fling then I could forget the CCC, but given that I have - well, we'll see what happens. I have one big advantage over Thomas (yes I have!), I know I can carry a heavy bagpack over at least 53M, his featherlite hipbelt won't do for that race! :-)