My blogging life has taken a bit of a dip due to my ongoing health issues. Four weeks on from spending a day in bed due to what I thought was food poisoning I continue to feel unwell. I spent last Sunday sleeping and had to abandon an exercise class half way through on Monday. That has never happened before. 

My daughter and a friend at work reminded me that I had similar issues when my best friend died. I had forgotten that. So maybe it is stress related. And, unusually, I am feeling a little stressed. I acknowledged this to myself and just by doing this simple act I am starting to feel better. It could be a coincidence but I probably do need to be kinder to myself.

Anyway back to what I had started writing about last week and would have posted if I hadn’t needed to take to my bed.

Another year, another disappointment. I got home a couple of weeks ago to the London Marathon commiserations magazine. It came with a rather nice running jacket. I held off buying a jacket as I knew I would probably would not be successful. The odds are not good. This year, according to my ‘you have failed again’ email there were 414,168 entries into the ballot. A record number of entries. There are 17,000 places. My numeracy skills would suggest that the chances of getting in are 1 in 25. Last year it was 1 in 16. 

The London Marathon is the most iconic marathon in the world hence its popularity. I can only see its popularity increasing so securing a place may not be coming my way soon. Of course, I could go for a charity place but I don’t want the commitment and stress of having to raise a lot of money. I raised over a thousand pounds last year when I ran the Southampton half marathon but that was on my terms. 

The other way I could increase my chances would be by joining a running club. Running clubs are allocated places which they in turn allocate by ballot. But I have no inclination to join a running club. I like running but I enjoy other forms of exercise more. I’d rather lift weights. 

A 60 for 60 was a visit to the Body World exhibition. I bought a ticket a few weeks ago for Wednesday evening. I did consider abandoning the trip as I wasn’t feeling great but I had the ticket and had been looking forward to it for weeks. The exhibition is billed as is a ‘traveling exposition of dissected human bodies, animals, and other anatomical structures of the body that have been preserved through the process of plastination’. My observation is that it has one to many travels. The bodies look shabby and have obviously lost the odd muscle or two. This was rather disappointing as it was the musculature that I was interested in. Not unclothed scrotums. 

But the week ended on a high. Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon celebrating a friend’s 60th birthday. A champagne afternoon tea. This is the first celebration of the class of 1975. There will be a few more including my own. 

Of course we did reflect on how we had got to this grand old age. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were leaving school with our whole lives in front of us. In, what feels like no time at all, two of our group have retired with the rest of us are contemplating it. 

But I’m not complaining. Some of our class of ‘75 didn’t make it. We can only be grateful that we did and can enjoy our 60th celebrations.