Extreme Knitting Redhead: Hot, Hot, HOT!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Hot, Hot, HOT!

It was Brighton marathon last Sunday and the weather forecast was spot on - it was HOT! I knew it was going to be bad when the organisers sent an email the day before advising people to slow down their pace, take on more water etc etc and to confirm if I intended to run still (presumably so they could ensure that had sufficient supplies of water etc).

I decided that I'd start gently and see how hot it was by the 1/2 way point. I reached 1/2 way in 2:22 which was bang on target but by then it was already too hot for me and I knew that I should slow down or risk making myself ill - see, I can be sensible sometimes! So I just settled into a nice slow plodding pace and enjoyed the party atmosphere.

Sadly, I saw lots of people who hadn't fared as well and had collapsed and were being treated by the St John's ambulance crews. Out of the 15,000 entrants only 8,000 started the race and around 7,250 actually finished so that was a very high drop-out rate.

I crossed the line in 5:21 which is 25 minutes slower than last year. I must take a photo of the medal which was nice and there was a tee shirt too. Mike forgot to take any photos of me so there are a few to look at here

There are a few short video clips of me waddling along too. You will see that the finish time on the clock is slower than my actual time because it took 9 minutes to get over the start line which is not unusual in large events.

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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.