Time for some cold, hard facts: yesterday was a really bad day. Yesterday I wanted to NOT be here in amazing Hanoi. Yesterday, I was off sick from both teaching jobs and well and truly not myself (I'll spare you the gory details). Yesterday, I was wondering what the hell I am even doing here in Vietnam. However, today? Well, today is a new day, let me tell you.
Thankfully, all those negative, apathetic things I was feeling and thinking yesterday (along with feeling quite miserable due to being ill again) all passed. Just as everything does. If YOU ever have bad days such as this, and I think it's safe to assume nearly everyone does, well it's so important to just get through them and to know they are only temporary. Channel Daniel Beddingfield of back-in-the-day UK fame and tell yourself 'you've gotta get through this'.... If that doesn't work, go food shopping and fill your fridge with fresh, wholesome ingredients that will nourish your body and soul as soon as you're feeling better (if you're sick too). Or talk to a good friend and get some very wise, valuable advice. Or all of the above!
It felt like the calm after a storm early this morning as I called in for a breakfast banh mi, courtesy of Banh Mi 25 on Yen Phu. Sidenote: get yourself along there tout-de-suite if you're in Hanoi! Delicious banh mis, with super fresh ingredients, an abundance of cucumber and coriander (no stinginess with their salad here), and lovely, friendly people running the joint. Now a day that starts with an egg and salad banh mi overlooking a small lake (not West Lake, but one next to Yen Phu Village - answers on a postcard as to its name please!) is going to be a great day. Prior to this I had gotten in a very short, shake-up, 30 minute run, before the race tomorrow.
Then it was on with one of the main events of the morning: picking up my race gear!
Thankfully, all those negative, apathetic things I was feeling and thinking yesterday (along with feeling quite miserable due to being ill again) all passed. Just as everything does. If YOU ever have bad days such as this, and I think it's safe to assume nearly everyone does, well it's so important to just get through them and to know they are only temporary. Channel Daniel Beddingfield of back-in-the-day UK fame and tell yourself 'you've gotta get through this'.... If that doesn't work, go food shopping and fill your fridge with fresh, wholesome ingredients that will nourish your body and soul as soon as you're feeling better (if you're sick too). Or talk to a good friend and get some very wise, valuable advice. Or all of the above!
It felt like the calm after a storm early this morning as I called in for a breakfast banh mi, courtesy of Banh Mi 25 on Yen Phu. Sidenote: get yourself along there tout-de-suite if you're in Hanoi! Delicious banh mis, with super fresh ingredients, an abundance of cucumber and coriander (no stinginess with their salad here), and lovely, friendly people running the joint. Now a day that starts with an egg and salad banh mi overlooking a small lake (not West Lake, but one next to Yen Phu Village - answers on a postcard as to its name please!) is going to be a great day. Prior to this I had gotten in a very short, shake-up, 30 minute run, before the race tomorrow.
Then it was on with one of the main events of the morning: picking up my race gear!
I love races. There's nothing quite like that buzz and ambience pre-race or even while collecting your race gear a day or so before (despite it being held in one of those giant, horrible malls). You meet instant new running friends, and the excitement is palpable and contagious.
Sidenote number 2: almost all of my recent event t-shirts have been bright orange. Does orange improve running performance and times? Or is it chosen purely for its jazziness?
I am pumped for tomorrow! I haven't run a half marathon for a while. I think the last one I did was the Kedumba trail half marathon last year, as I have been focusing more on full marathons lately. So I am excited to see what happens at tomorrow's event. I am aiming to use the race as part of my long run for the week (as the Bangkok marathon is really not far away now! Need to get a couple more long long runs in before a bit of a taper before 20th November) and will run the 11km home after the race, making it a neat 32km for my Sunday long run (I am going armed with peanut butter rye bread sandwich bites purely for the last 10 km of this).
Watch this space. Long Bien half marathoners, full marathoners, ten k-ers, and 5 k-ers - I'll see you bright and early in the morning!! All the best to everyone running tomorrow!
Sidenote number 2: almost all of my recent event t-shirts have been bright orange. Does orange improve running performance and times? Or is it chosen purely for its jazziness?
I am pumped for tomorrow! I haven't run a half marathon for a while. I think the last one I did was the Kedumba trail half marathon last year, as I have been focusing more on full marathons lately. So I am excited to see what happens at tomorrow's event. I am aiming to use the race as part of my long run for the week (as the Bangkok marathon is really not far away now! Need to get a couple more long long runs in before a bit of a taper before 20th November) and will run the 11km home after the race, making it a neat 32km for my Sunday long run (I am going armed with peanut butter rye bread sandwich bites purely for the last 10 km of this).
Watch this space. Long Bien half marathoners, full marathoners, ten k-ers, and 5 k-ers - I'll see you bright and early in the morning!! All the best to everyone running tomorrow!
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