A few months ago I signed up for the Blackmores Half Marathon. I think it was back in about June. Once that happened, I basically resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to stop drinking, eat healthy and run a hell constantly.

Apart from a few loose-ish nights in Thredbo, I was pretty good over those few months. I didn’t drink much, I ate pretty well and I ran a lot. Ticked all the boxes. Kind of.

Race day came and I completed the run. I was not fast by any means. It took me a touch over 2 1/2 hours to get it done. But I ran the whole thing and was quite emotional along the way. So many people are driven by sadness to do things. I found that quite confronting. Many people were fund raising to help find a cure for a loved one’s illness. Others were running in memory of a lost loved one.

Me, I just wanted to do it for myself.

Having done a few long stints off the drink, I am familiar with how good you feel when you are sober. The early mornings you get to see is a great side effect. The activities you fit in to a weekend is another. So many activities. You save a lot of money, or at least spend it on other more worthwhile pursuits and you lose a lot of weight.

For some reason, the training for this run didn’t see me lose any weight. But it did get me to drink a lot less. And I reaped the benefits of this.

We had work drinks last night and by my old standards, it was hardly a session. More like a quick lap around the block. But I woke up today feeling like I had put in a good 10 hour session at Cargo on a Friday night. Old Howie style.

I have to admit, over the years I have not really been a big hang over person. I have been very lucky in that sense. I always thought I was just tough. But I think it was more to do with the fact that I treated my body like a fun park and drank excessively. I was piss fit.

These days, with the reduction in drinking and general bender antics, I get worse hang overs. So it has led me to the realisation that there are 2 options:

1 – Drink more and regain my piss fitness.

2 – Drink less, be more healthy and avoid hang overs all together.

This worries me. As I think I may be growing up.

One thing is for sure. Even if I am growing up, rest assured that I certainly have no plans to grow old.