Time for a few confessions! And I am going to put it out there as to why I run and what I get from it... buckle yourself in, dear reader, this could be an interesting ride!!! I ran a marathon with Ben Smith a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't heard of him, look him up : www.the401challenge.co.uk He is a gorgeous guy for whom I have the utmost respect. This was the second time I have run with him. We were about 22 or 23 miles into the run and we got to chatting about runners in general. We had about 20 other runners with us that day for some or all of the distance and were talking about some of the background stories we had heard from some of the other runners. Ben has his own background story - see his website if you don't know it - and said to me 'I bet you've got a story to tell too haven't you?' to which my reply was that yes I did, but nothing so dramatic as a lot of the other tales I had heard that day and on other days from other runners. But it got me thinking that perhaps I should tell it anyway.... Training for running long distances can be painful, and boring and can get in the way of doing other stuff I want to do. There... that's that confession out of the way! Although I truly love my sport, there can be days, and sometimes even weeks, when I resent the domination it has over my life. So I can only estimate the level of resentment that some of my friends and family feel towards it! Sorry. So why do I do this to myself at all, and particularly if I'm not going to win the events I enter? The answer is that there are many reasons why I do it and more than one way of ‘winning’ Let's have a look first at some of the background to why I run. I was a good runner in school. I ran track and cross country to a reasonably competitive level and was involved with my local athletics club three times per week. Although I didn't excel, I held my own pretty well until a groin injury curtailed my season in my last year of school. The impetus was lost... leaving school I no longer ran with the club and my running pretty much fell by the wayside. I ventured the odd jogs along the beach whilst at University in Bournemouth and an occasional short run with friends on my return home, but nothing structured and nothing 'serious'. In my early twenties, I started playing badminton with a club on a regular basis. It was good fun, and kept my baseline fitness up (well, a little anyway!). Then something 'odd' happened. My hips started to complain... loudly. Not just when I was playing badminton, but even just walking along the street. It got so bad that I was having to stop and rest every 30 steps or so to let the fire in my hips subside. After numerous trips to the doctor's etc. I was told I had developed arthritis on the hip joints. I was prescribed high dosage pain killers and advised that I could be referred to an occupational therapist who could help me cope with day-to-day living. I was stunned. I was 23 years old, recently married, reasonably fit... why was this happening? The prescribed meds did nothing to help the pain, and they upset my stomach awfully. I didn't know what to do until a friend recommended I try a special diet. She was a nurse and had known a number of arthritic patients who had gained some relief from their painful symptoms through the diet. It was worth a try. So ten days before Christmas 1995 I started the strict elimination diet. It was pretty tedious, involving me eating little other than fish, brown rice and limited vegetables. I also commenced a programme of dietary supplements that had been recommended to me. It was strict and boring but I was desperate enough to try it. After a tee-total and tedious couple of weeks, including Christmas itself, my hips started to improve. By the second week of January, I was able to return to badminton! I slowly but surely re-introduced the eliminated foods, and reduced the amount of supplements I was taking. I had no idea why it worked, or how, but it was looking good! My husband and I decided to book a walking holiday in Austria to celebrate! Upon looking at the Lakes and Mountains walking brochures, and the skiing brochures, we saw that the last week of the ski season fell the week before the first week of the walking season, but was considerably cheaper... so, cheapskates that we are, we made the decision to take a chance on the weather and go with the last week of the ski season! We weren't skiers, and had no intention of becoming skiers, but surely one week wouldn't make that much difference to the conditions? With the holiday booked, we travelled up to Tamworth to a family Christening. The Snowdome had recently opened there, and we were advised to go and have a look as it was an amazing sight to see the 'man-made' snow inside this giant freezer! We took one look at the skiers on the nursery slope and made a decision there and then to try a few lessons before our holiday. We had two months! Oh how we laughed when we first put on the skis out on that artificial snow!!! We could neither of us stand up, let alone move along! The experience was in stark contrast to our mood only a couple of months earlier when my hips had been bad and the future looked bleak. In the space of a handful of lessons and a couple of 'recreational' ski sessions, we became hooked on the sport, and the moment we hit the Austrian Tyrol, with the amazing scenery and glorious sunshine, our love affair with the Alps and the white stuff began. There was only one problem... we were dreadfully unfit! A fact that was starkly obvious by the third day in the mountains when we could barely move and were so tired we just wanted to sleep!!! Something had to be done, so upon our return we joined a gym! Although I didn't realise it at the time, this is what started my shift of career. It took me another decade to finally leave the Law and take up my career in the fitness industry, but the seeds were sown back in 1996. And in about 1997 I started back running again, although not to a serious level at that point. I took up running to challenge myself… initially I used to test how fast I could go over a certain distance – 5 miles, 10km, 10 miles, half marathon etc. And eventually, inevitably, I felt I was ready to face what I thought of at the time as the ultimate challenge… a marathon. I ran my first marathon way back in 2003. It was in Stratford upon Avon. It hurt… a lot… and I hated it! But i also felt that I hadn’t quite got the best out of myself on that particular run so I signed up to run another… and another… and my quest began to run my own ‘best’ marathon. I had a time goal that I felt I was capable of… (sub 3:45) and I wasn’t going to rest until I attained that goal… Now for most runners in Great Britain, the ultimate marathon is London - indeed to most non-runners, it is thought of as THE Marathon, not just one of many. It is the largest marathon we hold in the UK, with a field of about 35 to 40 thousand runners. Like most other distance runners, I wanted to run London! I eventually got to run it for the first time in 2010. I had got a place for 2009 but with the marathon in April, and my daughter being born in the March, there was no way I was making the start line that year! (although my husband Ian ran it in 2009 and got his fastest ever time, despite the obvious distractions!) Despite having a new baby to care for (and breast feed!), I trained really hard for the 2010 Marathon, pushing my body to try to squeeze as much speed as I could from it … and when i stood at the start line in Greenwich that sunny April morning, I was so happy. I stood there soaking in the atmosphere, watching all the elite runners start their race, watching the celebrities getting interviewed for television, and knowing I was in really good shape for the race to come. When the race started, I kept to my game plan… watched my pace, drank and ate at the right times, and pushed on through the 26 miles of London streets. It still hurt a lot, but I kept on pushing whilst soaking up the feeling of being part of something amazing, something I had dreamt of for 8 years. London really is like being part of a fast moving carnival that goes on for hours and hours… I was ecstatic when I crossed the finish line 43 seconds inside my time goal (in 3:44:17). Where did I come? (I was actually 6907th finisher, 1075th female or 652nd in my age group!). To me, though, I had won that day, despite the fact that I was far from first. I was thrilled by my time, which was my fastest marathon time by over 15 minutes, but doubly-so because it was fast enough that I automatically qualified for a place to run at London for the following two years. London 2011 ended up being a little slower due to me taking exams in the lead up to the run which impacted upon the time I had available to train... and then 2012 just couldn't happen. That was the year that my wheels came off. In December 2011 I caught a virus. I was horridly fluey, and chesty but thought little of it, until I developed searing pain in my left eye. I had a viral attack on the cornea caused by the shingles virus, which probably came on as a result of my immune system being low from the chest infection I had had... My eye-sight was threatened and I was pumped full of anti-virals, anti-biotics and steroids. At one point I was on 13 different doses of meds per day. Thankfully, the meds did their job and my eye-sight was saved with little lasting damage. I was warned to take it easy for the next 12 months to try to avoid a repeat occurrence, but that I had been lucky. Unfortunately, my immune system wasn't so great at recovering. I developed post-viral fatigue. I was continuously exhausted with aching muscles. I felt bone-weary and had a pea-soup fog in my brain that made it almost impossible to function. I developed mild depression and suffered bouts of anxiety. I chatted with a GP friend about it and he advised me that there was little my own GP could do to help even if I went to see them... there was no specific test for ME/Post-viral syndrome, and no particular treatments for it, although I could be prescribed anti-depressants etc if necessary. He recommended that I look into nutritional supplementation... which I did. Months of immunity-boosting supplementation followed, enabling me to eventually return to running in late 2012. I had to take it gently, because I found that running hard/fast made me feel ill again, but at least I was back doing what I loved. Having deferred my London place from 2012 to 2013, I had a focus. I knew I couldn't run a fast marathon but could I run a marathon at all? It was me against ME! A gently, gently approach to training got me to the week before that race, which I had decided would be my farewell to Marathon Running. The date marked 10 years since my first marathon, and my body felt like it was telling me enough was enough, so I prepared for that event believing it would not only be my last London marathon but my last marathon. Full stop. Then the Boston Bombing happened. Six days before London. Decisions... Decisions. To run or not to run? Run of course - security would be higher than normal, it was probably safer than usual. Get out there and make a statement to the terrorists. The atmosphere that year was incredible. The streets of London were far, far busier than I had ever known them, the support electric. I ran a slower time (although still sub-4 hours) but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole run. I was on a high for days! I had to keep running marathons! And so it was that I switched from running for a time to running for fun! So why do I run crazy distances ‘for fun’? Firstly, of course, for the joy of taking part. London is amazing because of its scale and the kudos involved. But I have also taken part in small events where there are less than 10 competitors where we have all been on the ‘journey’ together, and have made lasting friendships from it, and I have run in some amazing places – a couple of years ago, i spent three whole days running along the Dorset coast from Charmouth to Studland Bay in glorious sunshine – and the views were just spectacular… next year I am hopefully heading to Morocco to run in the desert! But it isn't just about the 'events', it is also about the training. I try to run most days. Some days I run short, some days I run long, sometimes 2 or 3 times per day. Why? Well, of course, some of it is about logging the miles in readiness for the events, but, on other days, more than anything it helps to keep me grounded. I still suffer from the after effects of that 2011 virus. I have varying levels of anxiety to deal with on a daily basis, and a constant brain fog that means that I can no longer multi-task - I constantly have to remind Ian that I cannot talk to him whilst doing something else. If I am chopping veg, I can't talk, if I am talking, I can't chop veg! And please, please, please, if I am doing my accounts, stay the hell out of the room!!!! I can have a very short fuse and I have an atrocious memory. Running helps to keep any depression at bay, and seems to lessen my anxiety - I can work things through in my head whilst out on the run in a way I can't do any other time, and it often helps me to deal with stuff. Provided I don't go out to run fast or hard, I find it keeps my immune system ticking along well too, Whilst I mostly run alone, I also enjoy the camaraderie of running with friends. My running friends are a fantastic group of people who offer one another a special kind of therapy that only like minded (broken!) souls can. As Ben said, we all have a story to tell! This is mine. Well... some of it!
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