I guess I'm back

Ooft. It's hard to know where to start after a GIANT hiatus.

I guess a fair amount has changed since I last wrote anything here. And I dare say everyone's LONG stopped checking whether I've added a new post or not! It has been over a year after all. So let's catch up. Since I last wrote anything here:

• I got a new nephew.
• I got a year older. You likely did that too.
• I've changed job/career.
• I've swapped my heel obsession for a trainer obsession. Albeit one that, looking at my later posts, was somewhat burgeoning before I disappeared from the blogosphere. To be clear though, I'm still pretty obsessed with a good heel too.
• I've been to Ibiza for a 'final' girls holiday 'before we got too old to go raving', and had such a good time that we're going back again. It transpires that you are never too old to go raving.
• And, I've now run more than 5k. In fact, I'm doing my first half marathon tomorrow. Which I reckon is where I'm going to kick things back off here.

I got a bit fed up with blogging. I started at it to have somewhere to write but got a bit lost along the way and ended up with not much to say. It just all got too fashion/shopping related and I figure that, given that I'm an average size/shaped person with an average budget and average-at-best photography, it didn't make for much in the way of point of difference. If fact, the main difference I did see between other blogs and my own was the amount I swore. And I fucking stand by that.

I know from my last post (you should totally go back and read it. Read them all in fact. Marvel at my wit and average-at-best photography) that I was running a little back then. And, if my elderly memory serves me correctly, I was training for a 5k that got postponed until October. Safe to say I did not run that much between last April and October.

I volunteered at a 10k in the July and was in awe of every single person who ran past me. I cheered and wondered at how they were managing to do this. Then I went to watch Mr Llara and some others do the Scottish Half Marathon in Glasgow in October. Having never run further than 5k, and not very well at that, I was staggered to see people breeze and battle through 21k. It seemed like a miracle and one that I didn't think was possible for me.

Because, I'm not a runner.

That's what I always said. "Ooft, I'll do a 5k but I'm not a runner". I'm too heavy/pear shaped/jiggly/brunette/hungry/busy/insert current excuse here. I read the marvellous "Running Like a Girl" (even if you've no interest in trying running, this is a funny and sweet read that leaves you with the feeling you can probably do anything you put your mind or legs to), felt all inspired but still knew it didn't really matter because I wasn't a runner.

But for some reason, I decided that 2014 would be the year in which I cracked the running nut. So I signed up for a 5k at the start of January. Up a fucking hill. And I also signed up for a 13k in March, a 10 mile in April and a half marathon in May. And here I am. Tomorrow is the big day.

And one thing I've noticed along the way is people saying all the things to me that I used to think when I saw or heard about other people running - "Oh, I could never do that" "Wow, that's amazing" "I don't know how you do it" etc. So I'm gonna share my experience. Things I thought that were true. Things I thought that weren't true. Stuff I've discovered. And useful shit I'm either glad I knew or wish I'd known.

And I will absolutely still post pictures of shoes, clothes and jewels I've procured and cocktails I've drunk too. Cause old habits die hard...