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| August 2017 |
So after finally coming back from a six month injury lay
off, after getting hit by an SUV in one of those low speed traffic accidents
that are actually quite funny until you end up in hospital with cracked ribs
and a busted knee, I am taking on a proper running challenge.
This challenge is one which will no doubt keep me busy
enough on its own, but I figured I would use the discipline of training, and having
a regular schedule to motivate my writing as well, so a training blog/training
diary seemed like a logical, if slightly masochistic and over-committed, step.
I have chosen to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon in
October 2018 in aid of Prostate Cancer UK, and this blog entry is to explain a
little bit about why I have chosen this race, this distance, this particular
charity, and why I chose a charity at all.
This blog entry is also a little bit (well, a lot actually) to make sure
that I have something on the site and actually start writing the blog in the
first place, if people subscribe and start following this as well, then I will
have no choice but to continue it…(no pressure).
So there it is, almost as soon as I was able to move freely
again after the accident last July, I have decided to run a half marathon. “Folly!” I hear you cry. Well maybe not quite “folly”,
as it is a rather archaic expression, but I know it was something similar,
touching on the apparently overly ambitious, possibly self-harming, most
definitely self-indulgent, nature of the challenge. But I assure you the reasons for taking this
up are quite seriously considered. Before
the accident in July, I was a keen runner, managing to run 10k distances on a
regular basis, clocking up a couple of half-marathons (with a PB of 1hour, 42mins), and
seriously contemplating a full marathon at some point in my future, the injury nearly put paid to
all of that, and there were moments in October/November when the concept of running
again at all, seemed like a naive dream, or worse, so much hard work that it was actually prohibitive (surgery and physio with no guarantees).
This was a terrifying prospect for me, as I had used running regularly successfully as
a way to keep an eye on my underlying health condition, Myasthenia Gravis, and
now immobility, and this disease, were combining to make it likely that I might
have to walk with a stick for the rest of my life. Running has been not only my last bastion of
defiance against this neuro-muscular disorder, it had also allowed me to spot deficits in
function before they became critical, and keep a close eye on the progress of
the disease, so I was really not very keen on giving up Added to that, being immobilised as I was for those five months, the my most recent MG
"flare" caught me completely unawares, and I discovered that was a scary situation I would
rather not repeat. So I am very motivated to get back out there and reclaim some control over my
health and because I have run a half
marathon before, training for this distance again will actually give me an
indication of how age and my condition has progressed, and hopefully give me
the impetus to keep fighting against it. And with the Royal Parks Half Marathon being arguably the prettiest in the London area, it
seemed fitting that for a run that will no doubt come to represent a rebirth, I
should pick an idyllic setting in my home town.
But if you were going to run it, why bother running it for
charity? And why should I bother sponsoring you to do something you were going to
do anyway? You may not be cynical enough to ask these questions, but
fortunately, I am cynical enough for all of us, so let me explain... It might seem that I have plenty of motivation
enough to complete this challenge without any additional incentive, but having
trained for the distance before, I can assure you that there is no such thing as
having too much motivation. There will be plenty of rainy days, cold days,
oppressively hot days, between now and then to put me off training runs, and
staying fit. There will also, being a realist (as I now have to be after my last flare), also be plenty of injury setbacks,
and my condition will no doubt be an ongoing issue, and it will be on all those days that, “I am
doing this for a reason other than myself” will no doubt be the deciding factor
as to whether I put on my trainers. And
it is for that reason that I picked Prostate Cancer UK, my dad was diagnosed
with prostate cancer a few years ago, he has had surgery and hormone therapy, and late last year it progressed to stage four so he has been doing a course
of chemotherapy in the hope of halting any further spread of the disease. I don’t know how this story is going to end
(and in the interests of his privacy I won’t be sharing his progress here), but
by picking this charity, I feel that that extra push will be much easier to call
on, and simultaneously, I will be able to pay back some of the amazing support he
has had to date.
Tomorrow, 2nd March, I will be undertaking my
first training run to be detailed on this blog, in what can only be called
treacherous and unseasonably unpleasant conditions. With all the media hype around the sub-zero
temperatures brought by The Beast From the East and Storm Emma, and the Snow
Days and Thunder Snow (no, me neither) of the last week, it is easy to forget
that conditions under foot while doing training runs are hugely important and runners
have been provided with the perfect excuse to not get out this weekend. I am determined though, so tomorrow I will
adapt my usual running routes to avoid areas of un-gritted pavement and
potentially icy slopes and inclines, reduce my speed a little, and keep
everything crossed that other road users have the good sense to reduce their
speeds as well. It is time to get
going, and nothing, not snow, hail, or ice, is going to stop me.
Thank you for reading.
Rick
P.S. You can sponsor me and "keep me honest" here.
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