Two days ago I was due to run the Lausanne marathon, but I went to visit my 90 year old mother instead. She had actually been worrying about MY health and needed reassurance, so the 200 mile round trip was appreciated by all.
I made the mistake of looking up all the Swiss local newspapers on the web and Swiss TV to see their coverage of the marathon. Of course - beautiful sunny day, cobalt blue skies, the alps glistening across the calm waters of Lac Leman. I'd have liked to have seen an early cold front, sleet and high winds off the Jura - fog even. At least it was a bit warm - 23 degrees by my predicted finish time - so I can just about console myself with the fact that I might have been suffering slightly more than normal had I been in the race.
Later in the day I very much got the feeling that it was time to move on from this. I got injured quite a lot in that other running career 20 years ago and once stupidly ran a 1:20 half marathon (Roding Valley, Chigwell, Essex in 1986) when I had pretty severe foot pain from about 8 miles. I was a member of the club that organised the race, so no pulling out! That turned out to be a peroneal tendon insertion strain that stopped me running for a month and for one reason or another stopped my progression to ever faster times. By the time I got back into training my life had changed and we moved to Switzerland in January 1987, and my running slipped back in the list of life's priorities.
I have been running 3 times since coming out of hospital and yesterday ran a brisk 5 miler on a familiar out-and-back road course in almost exactly the time of 3 weeks ago, the fateful last run before the plague struck. The fact that my legs feel pretty good today has led me to believe that "I am back" and can now truly begin to plan for some racing ahead, and especially a marathon.
I looked at a few marathons in the UK - there are very few in the winter - but Luton in early December comes too early (perhaps not for me, but certainly for those who had sat by my hospital bed). In any case Luton in December is not quite as attractive a prospect as Lausanne in a golden indian summer! But maybe I can find a couple of mugs to run the relay with me..... So I looked about 16 weeks ahead and straight away found Seville on Feb 11. (note to self - must learn some Spanish so I can at least handle the entry!) This is somewhat ironic as I had thought of running this race in 2005 as my running had once again threatened to get serious again in the autumn of 2004. However I managed to get a severe ankle sprain running in the Chiltern woods in the dark, whilst wearing some stupidly inappropriate cross-country studs, and this stopped me running properly for months. Hopefully I can avoid such a misadventure this time around.
So in theory I am in training again and I am just in the process of scouting around for a 16 week programme and some prep races to "make a plan". I have three pairs of reasonably new shoes that need to get some wear.
My fund-raising for the orphans in Uganda was virtually complete and I will update the blog with the pledges for the last miles. We already sent over $2900 in mid September to fund 86 children's school fees for the last term of this school year and one advantage of running in Seville in February is that it will coincide with the first week of the new school year at Busalamu Secondary School, where our "marathon children" are going to school. Maybe it was fate that decreed this should be thus. Let's hope so.
Of course the big downside of the 16 week shift of marathons is that now I get to train right through the depths of winter for my race. A test of character and motivation that I hope I'm up to. (You see, self doubt attacks from all sides when you have a real running setback.)
My next blog entry will feature my "plan".............
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Life is full of surprises - not all of them good.
Monday October 2nd - I had finished a successful working weekend in the Cotswolds, staying with friends and enjoying myself thoroughly. I went for a steady 5 mile run on a familar course and was pleased at keeping up a good steady clip, despite the large time on my feet of the past 10 days. My thighs were pretty sore and at work roasting coffee later in the day, I felt a bit bereft of energy, sitting on the sacks more than I usually do. In my mind I put off my 20 miler until wednesday or thursday.
Tuesday October 3rd - I woke thinking I might be about to get a cold - lethargic, thighs still aching, but no sore throat or tight chest. After virtually a full day roasting, I decided to take a day off from anything the next day - putting off my 20 miler until thursday.
Wednesday October 4th - there'll be no 20 miler this week. I spent most of the day curled up on the sofa, even watching David Cameron's speech from the Tory conference in it's entirety. I started to feel I was running a fever, and went for the paracetomols and my duvet. I was still waiting for the inevitable cold symptoms to break through, when on a trip to the toilet I noticed some pretty unsightly deep red spots coming up on my upper thighs. I showed them to Debbie in the evening and we both agreed that I should see the Doctor in the morning if I felt no better.
Thursday October 5th - after a pretty fitful night I awoke to more spots on the legs and a few appearing on the arms. The shivers and feverishness were still there and the Doctor was called. After quite a bit of head scratching and some alarm at my low blood pressure, the Doctor despatched me to Stoke Mandeville hospital around midday for blood tests.
It as around 9.30 in the evening before I was seen by a Doctor and by 10.30 I was installed on Ward 10, a high-care assessment area behind A&E, where, unbeknown to me, I was to spend the next 8 nights, under observation as my temperature rose and fell, my rash grew and then receded and a serious case of ulcerated throat and mouth visited me for the weekend of my birthday on October 8th.
I spent the first half of this time on a re-hydrating saline drip, alternating with glucose and dextrose as I couldn't eat much. I also was being pumped 4 times a day with intravenous antibiotics as a sort of prophylactic against a bacterial infection that I might or might not have. These antibiotics included penicillin, which I had assumed I had an allergy to for the last 35 years following a reaction when I had Glandular Fever in my teens. I got the agreement to get this suspended to a milder oral antibiotic on Monday 9th, when funnily enough, I pretty quickly began to start feeling better!
During my eight days in hospital the following happened as regards my running aspirations.
- I forget to re-schedule my 20 miler. Walking to the toilet was about my limit.
- I realised I wouldn't be running a marathon on October 22nd, nor anytime soon after. Getting outside would be nice.
- When the dermatologists crowded round my bed they advised me that it would not be a good idea to try to travel to Switzerland looking like I did - they would be unlikely to let me in the country. So we cancelled my 4 nights in Leukerbad, an alpine spa, wher I had decided to spend most of the week before the marathon.
I finally got released on Friday October 13th, after a last minute biopsy on my rash, as well as Hepatitis and HIV tests to add to the 3 samples of blood and 4 samples of urine I had already given.
No Doctor was able to tell me with any degree of certainty what had been wrong with me apart from an assumption of a strong immune reaction to an unspecified viral infection. However they were all very nice, very over-worked and totally unwaware of my "case history" (never hospitalised in my life, in final stages of marathon training, compulsive "want to know why" person). The nurses were all fabulous and worked under extremely trying conditions with old people who seemed to have no-one else to care for their sufferings and dementia-like mutterings. With my balloons on my bed, my smuggled-in real food and my constant desire to know my own "obs", I at least must have been different to most of their punters. By the end of 8 days I was about to start becoming a nuisance and clearly had to go. I was in danger of getting out of my speed zone** anyway.
At the time of writing this blog entry, I have been out for 5 days. I am 3.5kg lighter without running a step; I am shedding skin like a snake and I feel like I need to know the true definition of the word convalescence. Wine for some reason tastes disgusting, but I still seem able to sleep for 10 hours.
My first cup of coffee for 9 days (some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe) tasted like it was almost worth the wait.
I have been for a run, yesterday, but it wasn't very auspicious. I am planning another one sometime soon, but all around me are are advising that it is "too soon". As my thighs are again a bit sore, I may just take their advice.
I have already re-planned my fund-raising marathon, but that will be the subject of another entry.
It's been a pretty strange couple of weeks, but as someone said -
"All experiences that don't kill you are good ones to have."
or something like that............
(** In my time in Stoke Mandeville Hospital I observed that different hospital occupants moved at wildly different speeds.
- Slowest - Patients (obvious as most stay in their beds)
- Next slowest - contracted (Sodexho) cleaning staff. I have never seen anybody work this slowly and their were several of them, apparently outside any form of command structure.
- Next, but still very relaxed - contracted catering staff (again Sodexho) with their trolleys.
- Same speed, but with "big boy" radios squarking and some chat - contracted porters (again Sodexho). As unaware of the routes around their domain as a New York cabbie.
- Approaching normal office worker speed - hospital admin staff.
- Slightly faster than normal office worker speed - hospital volunteers, chaplaincy visitors and your own friends and relatives.
- Getting faster. Doctors in groups on their rounds during daytime. When you see them they stand still around you, but they talk and think quickly and when they go they move off very sharply.
- Brisk (probably already double office worker speed and a serious step up from Doctor "firms") Doctors on call. Especially rapid with curtains around beds and getting intravenous lines in.
- Lightning - most members of the nursing staff. Usually multitasking, invariably cheerful and with eyes in the back of their heads. God bless then many times over. They spend their entire days making up for others' deficiencies and the NHS would collapse without their willingness to do hundreds of jobs per day that the others, usually contracted staff, don't do.
- Speed of Light. Coffeeman heading for the exit with his "release" letter. )
Tuesday October 3rd - I woke thinking I might be about to get a cold - lethargic, thighs still aching, but no sore throat or tight chest. After virtually a full day roasting, I decided to take a day off from anything the next day - putting off my 20 miler until thursday.
Wednesday October 4th - there'll be no 20 miler this week. I spent most of the day curled up on the sofa, even watching David Cameron's speech from the Tory conference in it's entirety. I started to feel I was running a fever, and went for the paracetomols and my duvet. I was still waiting for the inevitable cold symptoms to break through, when on a trip to the toilet I noticed some pretty unsightly deep red spots coming up on my upper thighs. I showed them to Debbie in the evening and we both agreed that I should see the Doctor in the morning if I felt no better.
Thursday October 5th - after a pretty fitful night I awoke to more spots on the legs and a few appearing on the arms. The shivers and feverishness were still there and the Doctor was called. After quite a bit of head scratching and some alarm at my low blood pressure, the Doctor despatched me to Stoke Mandeville hospital around midday for blood tests.
It as around 9.30 in the evening before I was seen by a Doctor and by 10.30 I was installed on Ward 10, a high-care assessment area behind A&E, where, unbeknown to me, I was to spend the next 8 nights, under observation as my temperature rose and fell, my rash grew and then receded and a serious case of ulcerated throat and mouth visited me for the weekend of my birthday on October 8th.
I spent the first half of this time on a re-hydrating saline drip, alternating with glucose and dextrose as I couldn't eat much. I also was being pumped 4 times a day with intravenous antibiotics as a sort of prophylactic against a bacterial infection that I might or might not have. These antibiotics included penicillin, which I had assumed I had an allergy to for the last 35 years following a reaction when I had Glandular Fever in my teens. I got the agreement to get this suspended to a milder oral antibiotic on Monday 9th, when funnily enough, I pretty quickly began to start feeling better!
During my eight days in hospital the following happened as regards my running aspirations.
- I forget to re-schedule my 20 miler. Walking to the toilet was about my limit.
- I realised I wouldn't be running a marathon on October 22nd, nor anytime soon after. Getting outside would be nice.
- When the dermatologists crowded round my bed they advised me that it would not be a good idea to try to travel to Switzerland looking like I did - they would be unlikely to let me in the country. So we cancelled my 4 nights in Leukerbad, an alpine spa, wher I had decided to spend most of the week before the marathon.
I finally got released on Friday October 13th, after a last minute biopsy on my rash, as well as Hepatitis and HIV tests to add to the 3 samples of blood and 4 samples of urine I had already given.
No Doctor was able to tell me with any degree of certainty what had been wrong with me apart from an assumption of a strong immune reaction to an unspecified viral infection. However they were all very nice, very over-worked and totally unwaware of my "case history" (never hospitalised in my life, in final stages of marathon training, compulsive "want to know why" person). The nurses were all fabulous and worked under extremely trying conditions with old people who seemed to have no-one else to care for their sufferings and dementia-like mutterings. With my balloons on my bed, my smuggled-in real food and my constant desire to know my own "obs", I at least must have been different to most of their punters. By the end of 8 days I was about to start becoming a nuisance and clearly had to go. I was in danger of getting out of my speed zone** anyway.
At the time of writing this blog entry, I have been out for 5 days. I am 3.5kg lighter without running a step; I am shedding skin like a snake and I feel like I need to know the true definition of the word convalescence. Wine for some reason tastes disgusting, but I still seem able to sleep for 10 hours.
My first cup of coffee for 9 days (some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe) tasted like it was almost worth the wait.
I have been for a run, yesterday, but it wasn't very auspicious. I am planning another one sometime soon, but all around me are are advising that it is "too soon". As my thighs are again a bit sore, I may just take their advice.
I have already re-planned my fund-raising marathon, but that will be the subject of another entry.
It's been a pretty strange couple of weeks, but as someone said -
"All experiences that don't kill you are good ones to have."
or something like that............
(** In my time in Stoke Mandeville Hospital I observed that different hospital occupants moved at wildly different speeds.
- Slowest - Patients (obvious as most stay in their beds)
- Next slowest - contracted (Sodexho) cleaning staff. I have never seen anybody work this slowly and their were several of them, apparently outside any form of command structure.
- Next, but still very relaxed - contracted catering staff (again Sodexho) with their trolleys.
- Same speed, but with "big boy" radios squarking and some chat - contracted porters (again Sodexho). As unaware of the routes around their domain as a New York cabbie.
- Approaching normal office worker speed - hospital admin staff.
- Slightly faster than normal office worker speed - hospital volunteers, chaplaincy visitors and your own friends and relatives.
- Getting faster. Doctors in groups on their rounds during daytime. When you see them they stand still around you, but they talk and think quickly and when they go they move off very sharply.
- Brisk (probably already double office worker speed and a serious step up from Doctor "firms") Doctors on call. Especially rapid with curtains around beds and getting intravenous lines in.
- Lightning - most members of the nursing staff. Usually multitasking, invariably cheerful and with eyes in the back of their heads. God bless then many times over. They spend their entire days making up for others' deficiencies and the NHS would collapse without their willingness to do hundreds of jobs per day that the others, usually contracted staff, don't do.
- Speed of Light. Coffeeman heading for the exit with his "release" letter. )
Prelude to Disaster
To try to give myself yet more options for running the marathon, I bought some new shoes on the Nike stand at the Windosr Half - a pair of Air Structure Triax motion control shoes.
The week beginning September 26th saw me on a pretty heavy work schedule and I knew from the outset that my number of runs would be limited to 3 unless I ran on the days when I was working at a show. In addition to this I have noticed that I always have heavy legs the day after I've been standing behind my coffee bar for 2 days.
.....and when was I going to fit in this darned 20 miler?
.....and would my achilles hold up?
Time to the marathon on October 22nd and an inevitable 10 day minimum taper were both starting to run out.
In the event I managed to squeeze in just over 30 miles on the days available to me - Monday, Thursday and Friday. This included a tiring, but at the time apparently very satisfactory 16.5 mile road run. The main encouragement came from the lack of Achilles pain I felt in my new shoes.
If I could just get in the 20 miler next week, I could then start my taper with two weekends still to go before the Lausanne race.........
The week beginning September 26th saw me on a pretty heavy work schedule and I knew from the outset that my number of runs would be limited to 3 unless I ran on the days when I was working at a show. In addition to this I have noticed that I always have heavy legs the day after I've been standing behind my coffee bar for 2 days.
.....and when was I going to fit in this darned 20 miler?
.....and would my achilles hold up?
Time to the marathon on October 22nd and an inevitable 10 day minimum taper were both starting to run out.
In the event I managed to squeeze in just over 30 miles on the days available to me - Monday, Thursday and Friday. This included a tiring, but at the time apparently very satisfactory 16.5 mile road run. The main encouragement came from the lack of Achilles pain I felt in my new shoes.
If I could just get in the 20 miler next week, I could then start my taper with two weekends still to go before the Lausanne race.........
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