h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last weekend was Bristol Half Marathon. In my previous entry I confessed that I had hardly been training at all over the last couple of months and was more than a little bit nervous about running. I started out at what I thought was a sensible pace and felt alright for about seven or eight miles, but then my legs felt heavy, my pace dropped off and I even had to walk part of mile eleven and I honestly thought I was going to be sick at one point. In the end I finished 435th in a personal worst time of 92 minutes. In recent times in the aftermath of a half marathon I’ve been buoyed up with adrenaline and actually felt pretty good, but on Sunday I felt absolutely awful and was still suffering the effects a couple of days later. I’m trying to be philosophical about it; I knew a month ago that I wouldn’t be at my best for Bristol this year. Not every race can be a personal best and there will always be other races and other opportunities to improve. But most importantly I’m hoping that the memory of how much it hurts to run a half marathon when out of shape will serve to keep me motivated for years to come.

I finished my last entry off saying that after Bristol Half my diary was blank for a couple of weeks and I was looking forward to a bit of a break; I guess I must have jinxed it because things suddenly got busy almost as soon as I posted that entry. Over last week and next week I have three interviews to attend in Reading, Middlesbrough and Southampton. Other than interviews my time has been taken up with a plethora of random engagements. My girlfriend and I went to Crockadoodledo again on the Saturday before Bristol Half to do some painting. And we went to the cinema to see The Black Dahlia on Monday. Then towards the end of last week we went to a leaving party for the post-doc in my girlfriend’s research group.

I got back to West Bromwich yesterday afternoon in time for dinner and a few drinks with my parents and a couple of their friends, then today I went to see a friend of mine who has recently had a baby boy. Tomorrow I shall be spending four hours on a train to Middlesbrough and will be trying to get a decent night’s sleep in the hotel before the interview starts at 8:30 on Monday. Looking for work is actually very hard work in itself and scuttling the length and breadth of the country is really exhausting at times, but hopefully it will all be worthwhile if it gets me a good job and things will almost certainly be a bit more settled then.

But at least for the next few weeks things look like they’re going to remain pretty busy. I’m probably going to be in Bath again next weekend and then the following weekend my brother is getting married and the weekend after that is Cardiff Marathon. Honestly I’m not sure I have time to fit a full time job into my schedule just yet!