I'm running my first race of the year in less than a fortnight. Yeah, I know - nothing wild or outrageous there.
But I'm running this race interstate. Again - neither wild nor outrageous, especially considering that the place I'm going to is Canberra and the wildest thing that happens down there is the bickering between political parties in Parliament House.
The reason that this trip is wild and outrageous is that I'm doing it BY MYSELF.
No, I didn't accidentally press caps locked at the end of that sentence. It's capitalised because traveling by myself is a big, fat, hairy deal to me.
I know that to most of you it's not something that would bother you. It's such a non-event that doing it doesn't even make you blink. But I'm not like most people. I like to think I'm special. Or should I say 'special'?
I have a interesting history with plane travel. And a lot of it involves vomiting. On the plane. And in the terminal. Some has involved being wheeled around in a wheelchair. Being upgraded to business class because I seemed so sick. All because I was nervous.
Sometimes my anxiety has me teetering on a fine wire between normality and insanity. Okay, I might have exaggerated that just a little bit but I'll do what I have to to justify using cute doggy GIFs.
I am slightly better at aeroplane travel than I used to be. Thanks in part to mind-altering drugs. I don't even actually have to take the tablets to cope. As long as they're in my handbag I can pretend that getting on a plane is really no big deal. I can sit relaxed in my chair and just go with the flow.
But if I'm going to be totally honest and before you all get too impressed with my feats of courage, I have to admit that I'm not going to be totally on my own. There's a small contingent of GaleForcers heading down. One of them, Elio, even gave me his flight details so I could be on the same flights after he heard that I get a wee bit nervous about flying. And on Saturday I came clean with the whole vomiting-wheelchair riding extent of it. I've got to hand it to him - I didn't even see him flinch. Either he knows a lot of other crazy ladies or his Mum brought him up so well that he's too polite to show his horror.
The reason that I like to travel with family is that they already know the extent of the crazy that happens when I get nervous. And they have to put up with it because they love me. Or maybe it's because I cook and clean for them, but I choose to think it's because they love me. Letting non-blood relatives in on the act is a totally different challenge. But I've often said that GaleForce is like my other family so I guess it's time that this other family met their crazy aunt. I'm hoping that we have so much fun on the weekend that I won't have time to be nervous. I'm hoping that it's so much fun that Bronwyn Bishop sanctions us for laughing too much (sorry I couldn't resist the political reference that only Aussie's who are current with their news will get).
And my goals for the race? To run without any pharmaceutical assistance. That's a big enough goal for the moment.
