This weekend has been a bit annoying, I would say. I’ve spent the whole week with knee and lower back pain, which hasn’t been great. I’ve also been busy at work with some tedious tasks, which never helps improve the overall mood. Finally, I’ve been reminded how the person I (really) like doesn’t like me back (or at least not in the same way), and that has brought my mood even downer. I’ve been trying not to think about it, because when I do, well, it’s not pretty.

As I’ve told my friends today, going for a run this morning really helped improved my mood. Even when I had spent most of the weekend with lower back pain, and wondering over and over again why I’m so unlucky with guys, it’s been quite a boost.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to do, because of all the aches and stuff. This morning, I woke up at 6am. Yes, me, on a Sunday, 6am. Ouch. Since I couldn’t get moving, I decided to have a quick shower, just to wake myself up, and after, I had a banana and peanut butter smoothie.

When I got out, I had to wait a few minutes for my first bus. Let me tell you… At 7am, it was freezing cold! A couple of guys walked past, still inebriated from the night’s shenanigans, and looked at me like I was crazy or something. When they were by my side, they brightly wished me a good morning, a wish I returned.

I got off at the police station, and waited for my next bus. A long wait. It was fun to see people walking past completely drunk, and it made me wonder where they were coming from. Is there a club in Lewisham open until that late/early? Or were they just coming from somewhere else? And if so, from where? Anyway, that second bus took me to Vauxhall. I was falling asleep, but I managed to keep myself awake by listening to music.

When I hopped off the bus and waited at the bus stop for the third bus, I seriously started questioning the whole thing. What was I doing at that time, already on three buses, and all to go and suffer a run for 5 kilometres?? I thought I should just go back home, to my warm and cosy bed. However, since I had been the one “organising”, I felt I had to see it through.

Finally, I arrived at Battersea Park at 8.20am. One hour and twenty minutes of journey. Not happy. Thing is, there was a guy from work already there!! Crazy people.

The race didn’t start until 10am, so we had plenty of time to kill. Everyone arrived, and I was still unsure about the whole thing. See, I don’t have much trust in myself and my abilities. What can I say? I think it probably stems from people telling me in the past I couldn’t do things, or kids bullying me and things like that. I have zero confidence in myself.

I started running. My official goal was to run it in 34 minutes, as I always do. I didn’t aim to beat that personal best because I hadn’t run in a long time. My secret goal was to actually finish the run. The beginning was easy, yet tough. I don’t think I’m a morning runner. My legs felt stiff and my calves were uncooperative. At least my back didn’t hurt.

I passed km.2 and things were looking great. I was a bit tired, from all the effort of trying to warm up my muscles, but my legs were pretty much running on their own accord. Yeah!

When we were doing the second lap, I had been running for ages when I remembered that, on the first lap, I had seen the marker for 1 and 2 kilometres, and then the one for 4k. I was so happy the run was almost over, because the 4k marker had to be just around the corner. There it was, only it said 3k instead. That killed me. I really felt I wouldn’t have enough energy to keep going until the finishing line.

I kept telling myself that I had to finish it without stopping to walk, and kept reminding me I had run plenty of 10k races, and even half a marathon. So I kept going (at some point, I did start telling to myself, maybe out loud, maybe not, just keep swimming, just keep swimming).

When I had the last stretch to go, I pushed harder. I decided I was going to run as fast as I could (even if it meant I was out of breath for a bit afterwards).

In the end, I ran 5k in 33:07 minutes. Not only I beat my secret goal of finishing the race, I also beat my PB. It was a success.

It made me feel a bit more cheerful than I had been feeling all week, to be honest.

Afterwards, one of the girls and I went for a brunch in Clapham Junction, which was amazing. Since I was in the area, I stopped by the tattoo parlour to say hi to one of the artists, and talk about designs.

When I got on the (first) train to come back home, my lower back started to hurt as if it wanted to get out of my body.

I’m still feeling somewhat happy, even though I know as soon as the alarm goes off tomorrow, and I’m back to normal, I will worry about the same stuff. I guess I’ll have to keep my mind distracted with other things!

This week, I’m going to work on a couple of things…

• I need to prepare a gift box for a stranger, as part of a project I signed up for. I need to find some small presents to send by November 24. I was thinking of making some Christmassy potpurri, but I wanted to include something else. Do you have any ideas?
• I want to practise a cake. Next week a couple of the girls in my team are leaving, and one of them asked me to bake a cake. I found a really awesome and cute recipe online, but it’s a bit out of my comfort zone, so I think I’ll have to give it a try beforehand and see how it goes.

That’s it for now. I’m trying to come up with ideas for posts where I can talk about the stuff I usually talk about, as well as use photos. As you can see, I’m not being very successful, so again, any ideas will be more than welcome!

How was your weekend? Did you get to do anything exciting?