So today it’s November 30th – St Andrew’s day – last day of November and the year end slowly coming into view. I can already feel the nervous energy and frenetic list writing swirling in my head, and I have that strange mixture of excitement and mild panic that I always get around this time.
I could opt to be more organised or become an early planner, or I could choose to do less in this last month of the year, but where is the fun in that?
Maybe because my birthday is in December it has always been a favourite month, and far from hating this midwinter time, I love the mixture of darkness and sparkle, of hunkering down and party excesses.
In recent years I have added an extra measure of things to do – to my December ‘to do’ list – as I have taken part in the Marcothon challenge since 2011. This challenge is to run every day in December – including Christmas day.
It is a self-regulated personal challenge started by a runner Marco Consani – and now with a decent number of folk who sign up every year ( over 2.5 k this year ).
Strange as it may seem – this added daily requirement helps to create order from chaos, or to help find that extra 30 productive minutes you thought you did not have. It is something of an antidote to procrastination and as a bonus keeps those December party weight gain pounds and hangover heads at bay.
Let’s hope I sound as evangelical about the benefits of daily December running in two weeks time as I do now, when I enter the ‘ remind me why am I doing this phase ?’
By way of getting me in the groove and remembering how easy it is to meet the minimum requirements ( 3 miles or 25 minutes running ), I have been trying to fit in a 3 mile run more often than usual and yesterday did a nice easy run in Inverness.
Was a lovely cool and misty morning – with Ness islands looking dreamy and just enough sunlight to make stops to take pictures an essential part of the run. Was nice to run through some familiar haunts of my teenage years.
The unfinished sentence... 