Extreme Knitting Redhead: My First Ever Ultra-Marathon

Thursday, February 22, 2007

My First Ever Ultra-Marathon

Hoorah, that's 35 miles done and dusted in 7 hours, 36 minutes 40 seconds and I ran all the way except for brief stops at the feed station. This is me back at home wearing my bright yellow race tee shirt and feeling rather proud. I wish I'd got a medal too but they didn't give one.

Here are a couple of photos showing part of the reservoir that we ran round in Draycote Country Park - 7 and a bit times to be precise. Each circuit was 4.71 miles so we had to run a sort of dog leg to make up the difference. The weather was kind to us and it was really quite warm for the first few hours with just a gentle breeze along one exposed side of the water. One side was undulating and the inclines felt like mountains later in the race. Sadly I didn't take the photos in the morning when it was sunny, but waited until later in the day when it went a bit cloudy and misty!

How was it? Well, it was tough, fun, demanding, exhilarating and a massive effort all rolled into one day. As it was my first venture over 26.2 miles it was a bit of an unknown entity. I got my pacing just right up to the 20 mile mark which I passed in bang on 4 hours. About 2 miles later I had a bit of a wobble and slowed right down for a few miles. It's times like that you need to dig deep and use your mental stamina and after a bit of a cry and an encouraging phone call from my hubby I managed to get myself back on track.

I learned some important lessons from the experience:

- An ultra marathon is not like an ordinary marathon of 26.2 miles with extra miles tacked on the end - it is a whole different ball game and requires a very different approach. When I do the Kent 50 mile Challenge in July I will have to run for another 17.4 miles on top of what I ran at Draycote. I think I've got some serious training to do!!!!!

- I need to do some work on my neck and shoulders as they were incredibly stiff at the end. Also, my arms ached terribly from being held in position for so long. This will be really important in the London Marathon when I'm knitting at the same time.

- My core muscles need strengthening. Towards the end I was finding the downhill sections really difficult and was getting pains in my tummy muscles. The uphill sections were fine, oddly enough.

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.