Elizabeth is Missing

I'm feeling a little bit lost.

After all those weeks of travelling and running in different, interesting and sometimes exotic locations, we're home again now. The last place we ran before coming home was Victor Harbour... It looked like this:

Whilst away, I ran regularly but never more than 3 or 4 miles at a time, so home again, I set myself the goal of gradually increasing my longest runs each week. I was even quietly contemplating an autumn marathon. I built up over 3 or 4 weeks to a long run of 10 miles and was feeling positive. And then came back down to earth with a bump after an unexpected visit to my GP resulted in surgery under general anaesthetic less than 24 hours later. Wounds are healing and pain is receding but I'm not allowed to run. It's been 3 weeks and counting... Grumpy to say the least. 

So what to do? How to keep myself occupied and not just sit and eat chocolate all day? I've been doing as much walking as pain levels and general fatigue will allow... 

- I've walked the Hanley parkrun course twice now and last week got a new walking PB... 2 minutes faster than the first week! Walking seems much harder than running, but I do get to see almost all of the runners as I get overtaken regularly and the encouragement from our friendly Hanley marshals really does keep me going (so thank you). 

- I've still been going to Potters Trotters on most Tuesdays and Thursdays... the walk down to our new meeting point at the university and back gets me a couple of miles in the bank. I've enjoyed a walk round with the university nature reserve a couple of times as well, trying to get to 10,000 steps if I can (my new Fitbit is being used to good effect). For our injured runners, the walking alternative is a really good way of keeping active and staying in touch with club members.

- On every other day at least I have to walk up the hill to Hanley Health Centre to see the district nurse... according to my Fitbit, it's like climbing 15 flights of stairs and 1,500 steps to get there, so it's all good exercise.

And in the gaps between walking and medical appointments, whilst most of my running friends are doing their last long runs before upcoming local half and full marathons, I've been catching up on the Strike Back box sets on Sky and making cards, lots of cards; getting back to the original roots of this blog (Rosedawn Designs). I started making cards about 4 years ago as a way of fundraising for Cancer Research, in addition to all the donations made in relation to my running endeavours. It definitely keeps me occupied, especially during periods of non-running like my London Marathon taper, although the creative process turns our living room into a seen of messy chaos!

So far in my injured and not running state, I've made about 100 cards and have just ordered more supplies! I use a mix of recycled materials (buttons and paint colour cards are popular in more recent designs), donated items (a big box of bits and pieces from Kirsten has been put to good use - thanks Kirsten) and stuff I pick up from craft shops or websites. I get easily distracted so designs change regularly and no two cards will be identical. These are just a few of this weekend's creations, made whilst looking longingly out of the window at all the runners going up and down the canal towpath in the sunshine.

I've got at least a couple more weeks of not running, so who knows how many more cards will be made in that time! If you'd like to buy some, let me know. Cards are sold in packs of 2 and cost £1 per pack - all money to Cancer Research. If you've got craft items lurking at the bottom of a cupboard that you want to get rid off, let me know too. I'd be happy to take it off your hands and try and create something unique with it... 

Happy not-running but looking forward to running again soon...

Liz T