Extreme Knitting Redhead: Mud glorious mud!

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Mud glorious mud!

I don't know how else to describe last weekend other than to say that the mud on Saturday was joined by snow on the Sunday.

We were back at the beautiful Ranscombe Nature Reserve which is very pretty in Spring-Autumn but I've always avoided it in the Winter months until now and even then I didn't really want to go because I knew how ghastly conditions would get underfoot. Heavy rain on top of chalk and clay over loose flints is a really bad combination for someone who has a tendency to trip over her own shadow!

At the race briefing on Saturday Traviss asked me how far I was going and I stoically replied "ultra" and he announced that I would earn a purple hoody (my favourite colour) for completing 2000 miles at their events. Ha, that changed as the day wore on.

Did I fall over? Yes, twice on lap 5 on Day 1 at which point I made the sensible decision to drop down to marathon distance so I walked the last lap in the amiable company of Kat whose dad is in the latter stages of dementia so we had a good old chin-wag as we slipped around in the mud like Bambi on ice. On Day 2 there was snow/rain and even deeper mud and no, I didn't go over marathon distance.

I'll let the photos, courtesy of a valiant fellow runner, do the talking as they give a reasonable idea of conditions underfoot. It was a struggle from start to finish.

Base station

This puddle was useful for cleaning my trail shoes after I'd finished

This is the section where I fell - my legs literally went from under me and I landed on my right hip and shoulder. Ouch but no blood!

Ooooh look, another puddle to wade through!

The Darnley Mausoleum

The slope at the top of this photo was the most treacherous bit to negotiate. I found it very scary going down it.

This quagmire was approached from the bottom of the photo and what you can't see is how steep the descent was - oh my goodness that was slippery!

A nice flurry of snow joins the mud on Day 2

Walking poles were even more important on day 2 when the snow came!

Please remind me never to enter a Winter event at Ranscombe again!!!

4 comments:

IanB said...: Those conditions look dreadful, well done you for starting and an extra well done for the distance you ran! I was out this morning round some woods locally and the mud was very,very wet and unavoidable, so that combined with a heavy cold made a miserable run, but! at least I was out. huge respect once again for your efforts, you are quite an inspiration !; January 23, 2018 at 7:57:00 AM PST
Julie M said...: You are such an inspiration to me! I have been reading your blog for about five years and have really enjoyed it. I don’t usually comment on any blog but I wanted to share that my grandma passed away from Alzheimer’s last summer. She had it and another great grandma of mine passed away from it before I found your blog via another knitting blog, and your story has really touched me over the past few years. About a month ago I found out my dad might have it too, but the diagnosis is pending. It was his mom that passed away last year. A few weeks ago I started wondering if I could run too, and so far I can only run a few minutes at a time but that is better than not at all a few weeks ago. So thank you for your inspiration and example. I am going to run for my family and to hopefully stay healthy, and I hope this terrible disease can be cured.; January 23, 2018 at 7:58:00 PM PST
Susie Hewer said...: Thanks Ian, it was not one of my favourite weekends! Well done you for getting out there when you didn't feel like it. Are you familiar with the rules about a cold? - if it's just in your head it's OK to run but if it's chesty then please don't. Take care.; January 23, 2018 at 11:19:00 PM PST
Susie Hewer said...: Dear Julie,

I'm so sorry to hear that your life has been touched by dementia and thank you so much for leaving a comment. It's such a cruel disease and it's so important that we invest in research. I really hope that your dad gets his results quickly as it must be very worrying for you all, especially with a family history. I love that you're using this as a positive and starting to run, well done you!

I only started running at the age of 45 when my friend died from cancer and I wanted to do something in her memory so I entered the Race4Life, a 5k event. When I announced my intentions everybody, including me, laughed their heads off but I persevered and then when I was caring for my mum it became a very important part of my life as Mike would take care of her whilst I went out for an hour each day. Oh and when I started running it wasn't even proper running, more like a shuffle - I went to the local gym, got on the treadmill and started running for as long as I could. It felt like about 10 minutes but it was actually 2 minutes and then I was completely out of breath! So what I did was run for 2 minutes/walk briskly for 8 minutes for a total of 30 minutes and each week I'd increase the running part until I could run for the full 30 minutes. Small steps will get you there - there are lots of couch-to-5k type schedules on the web if you search around.

Good luck and please feel free to contact me privately via a comment (which I won't publish) if you need a chat. Susie xxx; January 23, 2018 at 11:41:00 PM PST

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.