How is it April already?
Wow a long old update break from me, so far 2023 hasn’t been my favourite, mostly because I’ve spent more time unwell than anything else. Unwell post marathon, that one hung around for a while and I do wonder if it was COVID finally catching up with me. Then early last month, with my foot still giving me some trouble, the doctor finally decided I had a stress fracture and I’ve been in a fracture walking boot since. It appears I ran a half marathon and a marathon on a fractured foot, oops! And then after finally getting a non running, non working holiday at the end of March, in Toronto, I got flu two days into the trip, we arrived home on Tuesday this week and I’m still not well, better than I was but not right.
I wrote a whole update back in February that I never got around to posting, great job Michelle. I’m glad we’re finally over the worst of winter, the long dark nights and cold are always hard on me (on most of us I think) and it’s nice to have some spring sunshine and watch the plants bloom. Today it’s sunny out, blue skies, I should be on my way to the studio but with still being unwell I’ve decided to take the time to rest and recover, something I’m not so great at for fear of letting people down. I’ve been trying to look after myself this year, rest when my body asks for it, after years of pushing past my limits it’s finally time to take care of me, I can’t keep running myself into the ground. And I’m away again next week, a birthday trip that I’ve had planned and booked since last summer, I really want to be healthy for it, not still recovering. As of next week I can officially be free of the fracture boot and I’m hoping to have better health as I move into my 39th (eek) year.
We are due to have some big changes happening with the tattoo studio this year, we had hoped to have keys to new premises back in January, but Jan pushed through till Feb, till March and now it’s April and we’re still no further forward, waiting on contracts and building work to be completed at the property. Infuriating as the dragging out of it all is, I feel like it will all come together at the right time and ultimately there’s no rush, to have had the keys any sooner at this point would have been such a huge stress with everything else that’s been happening.
I have a couple of conventions I’ll be working this year, The Big North Tattoo Show in Newcastle at the end of April (29th/30th), The Big London Tattoo Show in August (26th/27th) and the NZ Tattoo are Art Festival in New Plymouth, New Zealand in November (25th/26th). Trying to keep conventions to a minimum as although they are fun, they can be super stressful and very hard to plan for!
At this moment in time, I still have availability on the Saturday at Newcastle if anyone would be interested in getting tattooed please email your ideas to michellemaddisontattoo@outlook.com. I will be booking for London and New Plymouth much closer to those dates, although I’m happy to take enquiries if anyone is already interested in booking.
I’ve made a small update to the tattoo gallery, not the art gallery or shop just yet, the shop has been on my list since December and I will get around to it eventually…
Quick running update, for anyone interested, if not skip to the end.
My runDisney marathon weekend didn’t exactly go to plan in January, especially not after finding out I was injured in December. After 4 weeks of no running, the half marathon actually went well, my training paid off as afterwards I felt fine, didn’t hit my usual 8 mile wall and I took it relatively ‘easy’ to save some energy for the marathon the next day. On marathon day I woke up with a slight cough and some hot and cold sweats, I thought it was from the air con and being over tired but I now realise that I was starting to get ill. I struggled through to the half way point and then walked a good chunk of the middle, I had some stomach issues too, honestly how people run marathons and ultras all the time I’ve no idea, it’s so hard on your body. Anyway, I walked, I cried, I felt horrible, I was sore, somewhere towards the last 10k I was almost over taken by the 6 hour pacer and decided I had to try, so I ran with them till the end, run/walk 30/40 seconds at a time. And I learned that despite how horrible I felt, how defeated, my body still had more to give, my brain was the problem. A few miles from the end of the race, the course passed my hotel and I was so close to giving up, running across the road and going to bed!! But I didn’t, I finished, my watch time was just over 6hours, I had wanted around 5, my official time was around 6hrs 40mins. It’s taken me until now to actually appreciate what I did as I was so disappointed in myself when I finished. I also swore I’d never run another marathon but here I am, 4 months later, contemplating trying for marathon weekend 2025, we will see!
As of this moment I’ve not ran since early March, I’ve barely even strength trained for the last few weeks either. My birthday trip away is for another runDisney event, a 5k, 10k and 10miler, but I’m still healing and not trained enough to run, I’ll be taking part, just with a walk instead. Fingers crossed that by the end of April I’ll be ready to start slowly running and building strength again.
Oshhh this is a long one, I’ll try to be more consistent at updates so I’m not writing essays every 3-4 months for now on.
It’s Easter weekend so I hope you all have a good one and stuff yourselves full of chocolate and even if you don’t celebrate I hope you get to enjoy a long weekend and that the sun is shining wherever you are ☀️
And send me some speedy healing vibes because I’m truly sick of being unwell this year!
Me with my marathon and half marathon medals, stood in front of the castle at the Magic Kingdom in January.
At the CN Tower in Toronto at the end of last month, just before the flu hit me and wearing my foot fracture boot!