4th December 2016

Number of miles run: 5

Tantrums thrown: 3 (not all by me)

I wasn't going to write about wedding planning. It's too risky, too many of the parties involved may read it. However, I'm at a point now where I don't care if nobody wants me round for Christmas. It'll save me money on presents.

Getting engaged is supposed to be one of the happiest times of your life. It's exciting, it's new, and you're disgustingly in love. Now it's happened to me, I've realised that that is a complete fantasy portrayed by the media and Disney. Either that, or everyone else in the world has sane, functioning families who appreciate that you are a grown up and able to make sensible decisions. 

My wedding planning is becoming some sort of ridiculous sitcom, only I'm the protagonist and I'm not finding it very funny. 

My mother in law would like to be a bridesmaid.

My father believes its his wedding, and is insisting I invite all 60 of his closest friends. 

My mother is being strangely silent on the whole subject, except for occasionally high pitched hysterical screeching in the background of phone calls with my father. However, I fear she is the brains behind my father's ridiculous demands.

While this is going on I suspect that my father in law is sitting back, watching the whole thing unfold and being slightly amused, and Mr Runner is playing Xbox. 

The icing on the cake was when my father called last Sunday wanting to know why the whole thing hasn't been booked and planned yet. We've only got 11 months and 2 weeks to go you know. 

The harder he pushes, the harder I am trying to run away. Which only makes him push harder to get things done. It's like I become a stubborn 14 year old all over again, and it's an argument about eating my peas. I resolved that one by running in to the middle of the street with no shoes on, in the rain, and threatened to call ChildLine, very loudly so that the whole street could hear. I didn't have to eat my peas that night. I fear a similar strategy isn't going to work here though. 

I get he's excited, and wants to show off. I'm just not sure I'm there yet. 

So instead, I'm going to sign up to run the Yorkshire Marathon in October next year so I can be too busy training. It's exactly one month before the wedding, so I feel it's an excellent avoidance/coping strategy.