the good and bad of the weekend

This weekend was both fantastic and hellishly awful. It all started when I ran into a door. A few nights ago night Rhys shut the bathroom door for some unknown reason. we never shut the bathroom door. ever. I was really, really tired and decided right before I was about to go to bed that I needed to use the bathroom. you can see where this is going. I was half walking, half limping, half asleep stumbling along to the bathroom on the route I know very well. and smack. right into the bathroom door. not to be a baby, but it really hurt. that bathroom experience is second only to the time that Rhys left the toilet seat up. I got up in the middle of the night and actually fell into the toilet. it was not nice. i did not enjoy. I screamed and promptly ran into the bedroom to wake him up and tell him of my disgust. he laughed, a lot.

In spite of that, by Friday evening it was looking to be one of the best weekends in a long time. I had a great run Friday evening, 7 miles at a good pace. Friday is pizza night for the Williams Team and my Texas B-B-Q pizza was fantastic. Saturday morning I was up bright and early to meet Kym in Camden. I love Camden. it has been one of my favourite places in London since I moved here. Its like a giant mix of a flea market, state fair and punk rock show. There are more pot smoking, mohawk wearing, facial piercing, tattoo covered, pink haired, dreadlocked men and women in one concentrated place than any other place I have ever seen in the world. its fantastic. we had a starbucks by the lock, then a venture around the market, followed by some super cheap Chinese food in a metal tin. 4 hours later i took the tube back home. Aside from loving Camden, i love Kym. It was great to chat with a fellow Arkansas-an. Home life, people we both know and thoughts we shared about life back in America. More than anything is was refreshing to see that there is someone else out there who shares my thoughts, almost exactly, about life in London and life back home. it was good for my heart and my mind.

*to digress briefly, I must mention that around this time i started noticing it was hard to breath. I figured it was all the smoke and didn’t take a lot of notice, despite the fact that I was coughing and wheezing...

Saturday was also a beautifully sunny warm day. fantastic. Went down to the pitch to watch the Fullers. So many lovely friends along the side lines to chat to. not to mention I had my first try of lime and Kronenbourg. strange, but at least worth a try. I hate to say it but, of course, the Fullers lost. That evening we bypassed the normal pub party as I had the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday. I had been looking forward to this race for months. I had trained, and whilst i did get distracted about 2 months into my training, i was still really excited.

Shoes on, running clothes ready, caught the train at the right time, went to the bathroom, had water, all set. I ran the first 8 miles at a pace which would have seen me finish in 1:42. that would have been a great time! just slightly over 7:30 minute miles. Sadly, it was not meant to be. Not only were my lungs having a strangely difficult time, but at mile 8 and a quarter, my knee popped and I fell over. Just fell right over on the ground. Ricey, a friend who ran it as well came along, picked me up and helped me to the medic tent. I had my knee wrapped, went against their advice and decided to try to finish it. I half-limped, half drug my leg across the finish line. In a sad, sad time of 2:17. At least i finished...but. then started feeling even worse. I couldn’t decide if it was my knee or my crushed spirit at finishing the race in my worst time ever. and not just my worst time ever, my worst time by 20 minutes!! Still, I couldnt shake the sick feeling plus I wasn’t really recovering from the race like I should have been, so off I went to the doctor.

What began with the makings of being one of the greatest weekends in a long time ended with pneumonia. thats right, pneumonia. I cant say that I was really expecting that result but what i thought was just a cold a few weeks ago had managed to settle in my lungs and give me the joyous result of the early stages of pneumonia. that is something that people got in the 1800's. or at least something that only old people get. apparently i get it too. pneumonia. really?! at least the weather was nice all weekend.