Big badda catch-up time!

Oh my goodness, I've been so lax in my updates and now there's too much to go in one post so I'll have to split into bite-sized chunks (and not necessarily in the right order).

First we have the long-awaited ballot results from the London marathon:

Oh no, I hear you cry!  You haven't got a place and it's all about dementia charities in 2019.

But fear not dear friends, the lovely people at The Dementia Revolution (the partnership for 12 months between Alzheimer's Research UK, the charity I've been supporting for the last 13 years, and the Alzheimer's Society) have offered me a Gold Bond place so I will be there - well I could hardly not be there could I!

This of course means that I have to raise £2000 for the cause which is going to be jolly hard work as everyone I know has supported me at least once and some many times more.

I've raised over £54,000 for research already but I'm going to have to be super-creative to find new ways to reach my fund-raising target this time - as usual I have a plan brewing inside my head and it's  a very scary and suitably testing challenge for 2019 which I can't share just yet.  Suffice to say it will be tough and will take me right out of my comfort zone (yet again), especially since I will be 62 when I undertake the really tough part of it (gulp!).

My fund-raising page is now up and running and full details of my challenge will be revealed in due course.  I might also do something special at the London marathon just for old times' sake..................

A short while ago Dame Barbara Windsor very bravely announced that she is living with dementia and she sent this lovely message:

Now what else is there to catch up with?  There have been a couple of marathons:

The Tolkien Challenge

Back to beautiful Samphire Hoe again for my 4th running of the Tolkien Challenge.  I wasn't sure whether to do marathon or ultra distance at the start but settled for marathon in the end as the motorway traffic was bad due to roadworks and I wanted to get home at a decent time.

It was the perfect weather for a little jaunt by the sea and I'll let the photos do the talking:

The Highland cattle and sheep were sharing the grazing in different areas.

I always love seeing the cliffs.  They make me feel small and humble.

Traviss made the usual announcements but this one for Nick, my favourite nutty American, was extra special and I need to give him his own post.  Suffice to say he is shattering and setting so many World Records and is absolutely amazing (note to self - don't forget to write about Nick asap!)

I tried to be really good and only took photos on my last lap (although I did spend about 10 minutes chatting with a bird watcher at one stage.  He was watching a Peregrin Falcon on top of the cliffs but was interrupted when someone flew a drone overhead which scared it off.

As we stood chatting this small murmuration of Starlings took flight and flew down the side of the cliff right over my head - the noise of their wings was amazing!  They performed some fabulous  acrobatics before settling back on the cliff-face.

Dungeness power station in the distance

For some unknown reason, I was captivated by receding lines that day.

Jon striding out along the sea wall.  His mum & dad were there too.  He's got his whole family into marathon running and his mum has been an absolute treasure during races, handing out ice-lollies and sweeties when needed (more receding lines).

The day-glo orange Sea Buckthorn berries look unreal don't they!

There was lots of Sea Lavender along the sea wall

I don't recognise this plant and must look it up

The obligatory lichen shot!

The rust-coloured reeds against the green water drew my eye

Sea meets clouds, meets multi-coloured sky

Bye-bye sea.  See you again soon.

Another fab Tolkien medal

My finish time was around the usual taking into account chatting and taking photos - 5:39:44.  That was number 157.

The Kanga-Roo Kanter

Back to Ashdown Forest for another challenge event in Traviss and Rachel's Winnie the Pooh series - for the past 2 years I've done both days and earned suitably themed medals at the Winnie the pooh Wander, Eeyore Expedition, Tigger Bounceathon & Piglet Plod.

This year it was the Kanga-Roo Kanter and the Owl Amble but I could only do the first day as life got in the way.  The other issue is that I had a camera malfunction and so all the photos I took were lost.  I couldn't work out why until I remembered the start when we were all setting out.  I was going over a short, sharp grassy mound when Dee was taking photos and I waved to her - a man behind me pushed into me and I stumbled and fell flat on the grass.  The rude man didn't even say sorry, nor did he stop to check that I was OK!  I think the memory chip in the camera must have been dislodged in my fall hence non of my photos were saved.  Ho hum.

So this is the only photo I have, taken right at the start by someone else.  I'm on the right, wearing my pink flamingo crochet cap, chatting with James and plotting adventures for 2019 (as you do!).

I had a very pleasant run despite the tumble and the weather was perfect with a gentle breeze to cool us down.  Everywhere looked wonderful as the bracken was changing colour to shades of rust and lemon.  There were lots of dog walkers and horse riders out and I had some lovely chats with fellow runners en-route.

I hadn't decided whether to stick at marathon distance until my last lap when I decided I wanted to get back home for Strictly come dancing (Mike and I have become strangely addicted to this programme which is odd because we are rubbish dancers!).  For those of you who watch this I was sad to see Katie Piper leave this week as she is such a lovely lady but sadly she wasn't the best at dancing.  I met her years ago on the This Morning programme and I was humbled by her amazing attitude to what had happened to her (she had acid thrown in her face by an ex-boyfriend).

Sorry, I digress.

Before I set out for my last lap I paid a visit to the aid station for the first time as my water bottles were empty.  They're those soft, squishy bottles which fit into my ultra-running vest.  I topped one of them up and tried to get it back into its pocket but I couldn't get it back in so Kirsty very kindly took pity on me and came to help.  This resulted in much hilarity and squirting of my drink and I must have wasted about 5 minutes there for no real reason!

Never mind, I trotted around my last lap without falling over so that was a bonus and even better I finished faster than day 1 last year so was very happy with that.  So that was marathon 158, completed in 6:04:09 which is a couple of minutes faster than last year and would have been more if it hadn't been for the squishy bottle debacle (oh and the chatting and photos)!

To finish here's quick showing of my completed Allie Shawl which has been blocked and just needs a few finishing touches (I'm feeling the need for pompoms for some reason) before I do a write-up about it unless of course I get distracted by something else as is my wont!

It's Good to Talk

The last couple of weeks have been quite exciting what with the announcement about the Dementia Revolution for 2019, the commencement of another fund-raiser with Parkrun and the release of an updated 'Share the Orange' campaign.

Share the Orange

Let's start with the video, narrated by Bryan Cranston:

I love the simplicity of the analogy and I feel it's very powerful as an aid to explaining, in an easy to understand format, what happens when dementia takes hold in a brain.  I showed this (with Mike's help!) at the end of the talk I gave in our local church the week before and it was well received.

Talking at the Church of St James the Great

The beautiful church in our village has featured on my blog many times before - when I decorated a Christmas tree for the festival  (see Dressing the tree with memories & Crocheted Memories - I can hardly believe that was 6 years ago!) and for Village in Bloom both sprang to mind immediately.

Last year they introduced a series of monthly talks, either in the afternoon or evening, to help keep  the Church alive and part of the community.  There have been talks about local walks, what happens after Brexit and various other topics.  I was delighted when I was invited to speak about the work I do around dementia other than running as many people would not know how many things I've been involved in over the years.

Jo told me that their audiences have numbered between 8 & 25 and I wasn't entirely convinced that we'd get into double figures as many people were away on holiday/visiting family on the week I was to speak!  I reassured Jo that it really didn't matter as I'm comfortable speaking with small or large groups (although in truth I'm happier with a much larger audience so I can't see people dabbing their eyes during the really sad parts!).

The slot was for 45 minutes and I knew it would be hard to cram everything in so I chose a few key issues to mention and made sure I took my alarm clock with me so I didn't waffle on too long.  Mike came to and acted as setter-up-of-the-video, photographer and supplier of moral support.  Sadly the light from the window behind me was so bright that most of the photos didn't come out well here are a few.  I purposely didn't choose to show slides to such an intimate audience and opted instead for a set of photos and leaflets.

It was a glorious sunny day and Mike and I walked along soaking up the atmosphere in our beautiful village.  As we waited for people to arrive I wandered around inside and took a few photos:

Aaah, tea and cake, excellent but many more cups were needed!!!

Mike setting up the Share the Orange video (more chairs were need too!)

Waiting for people to arrive

Jo makes the introduction

Then I was off.........

I started by giving a brief overview of mum's story as most people there already knew it well from all my fund-raising.  What they didn't know was why I started speaking out about dementia and the specific aspects about which I had major concerns.  As I thought, most people had no idea the sort of things I've been involved in for the last 13 years and I was only able to touch on a small percentage of them as there wasn't time to cover everything.

The main things I spoke about were helping de-stigmatise dementia,  being a Lay Champion for Join Dementia Research , writing countless articles/giving interview for a variety of publications, getting dementia mentioned on Death Certificates, lobbying, speaking at conferences/companies/leisure groups & anyone who would listen and then giving examples of the difference this has made eg the well-known young comedian (who I won't name) who made jokes about Alzheimer's until I wrote to him explaining what it's really like whereupon he apologised as he had no idea, the G7 dementia summit and a few other bits and bobs until I spotted I had 5 minutes left so I asked if anyone had a question.

Yes they did, so many questions, which was wonderful and took us well over the hour mark.

I was especially pleased to chat with a lovely lady who lives in a nearby village and whose husband is in the mid-stage of dementia.  I have since emailed her lots of links which will hopefully be useful and told her she can speak with me whenever she needs some moral support.

The one question I had to answer really carefully came from a neighbour: "Why don't the Alzheimer's Society & Alzheimer's Research UK join forces?".  I wanted to shout and scream the news that they ARE coming together, albeit just for 12 months as Charity of the year at the Virgin London Marathon in 2019 with the Dementia Revolution mentioned above!  But what I had to say instead was they operate in different areas with ARUK being purely focused on research with 84p in every £ donated going straight into research and the remaining 16p being used for overheads & fund-raising efforts etc whilst the Alzheimer's Society deals mostly with the Care side.  He was the first person I emailed as soon as I was allowed to share the news.  He said I should be an actress as I fielded his question very well!

Finally I had a lovely closing message from Christopher who has made a wonderful display of leaflets etc in the church for those who weren't able to attend.

Then it was tea, cake and a catch-up with friends and neighbours.  The added bonus was that everyone made a donation to my fund-raising and the final total was nearly £300 so thank you one and all.

Parkrun - Running Down Dementia campaign 

This is the 3rd year that Parkrun and ARUK have joined forces for this campaign and so far together they have raised almost £500,000 which is absolutely brilliant and has funded 2 major research projects already!

What parkrunners are asked to do is run 100k between April and August and raise £100 (or more of course!).  They can sign up on the Running Down Dementia website and already the total raised is nearly £50,000 already.  At the start of each campaign ARUK Champions are asked to give a brief talk at the start of a parkrun and as I'd already spoken at both Hastings and Tunbridge Wells I chose Bedgebury this time.  It's a beautiful place as you'll see from some of the photos Mike took as he walked around waiting for me.

I'd been sent a tee shirt to wear and some leaflets to hand out too along with briefing notes (which were far too long so I just chose the salient points).

Tee shirt front

Tee shirt back

Front and back of the leaflets

I'd contacted the Race Director to introduce myself and he told me that the marshalls would be there setting up from 8:15 onwards but when we arrived at 8:30 there was only one man and a wheelbarrow full of cones and signs!

We took the opportunity to have a quick walk in the forest and then I decided that I'd better do a warm-up routine which I don't bother with before a marathon.

When the RD arrived I went to meet him and was told that he wasn't going to be the RD that day and it was the lady to his left who would be in charge.

The marshalls arrived gradually and headed off to their appointed spots

There was a lot of hanging around, as always

There were 3 separate starting areas - Cani-cross for people running with dogs (they love it!), people who'd run a parkrun before and first-timers.

 

By the time came for the RD to issue the instructions I suddenly released there were quite a lot of people there and someone said she'd need to use the megaphone.

Then it was my turn.  

I knew I needed to keep it short and snappy with no waffle so I just stated that was was there representing ARUK, what the campaign is all about, how much had been raised already, told them why their support is important and then thanked them and wished them good luck for their run.  I hoped I'd done it in under 2 minutes as all people want to do is get on with their run.  Mike said later that it was just the right length and I'd got all the salient points in.

As I was speaking I suddenly became aware that everyone had stopped talking and they were all listening to me.  This was a first as at the previous 2 parkruns some people paid no attention and just carried on chatting which is quite rude.  Even better, I got a round of applause and people kept thanking me en-route and saying "well done"!  How lovely.

Then we all headed off to our respective start positions.

It was wonderful to see so many young people taking part.  In fact, the beauty of the Parkrun phenomenon is that it's loved by young and old alike and is inclusive of all abilities.

Then we were off.  I knew it was a somewhat UPdulating route and it started with a long slow drag upwards followed by several more ups and downs.  Whilst I was running, Mike started to walk the route and then turned round after 25 minutes so when I finished I ran back to meet him.

Mike asked me if I'd spotted this tower on my way round, which if course I hadn't 'cos it was high up behind a lot of trees.  He took a photo of it because on a clear day we can see it from our house high up on the hill.  By road it's about 10.5 miles away but less taking a straight line x-country.

On the way back to the car we popped into the cafe and I distributed some leaflets to the captive audience then we headed back to the car park passing this nice en-route.

The beauty of parkrun is that they scan your unique barcode when you finish and the results go up onto the website really quickly.

I had no idea what time I would do as I haven't run a 5k as a race for many years and I don't think I have any 'fast twitch' fibres left in my muscles as I'm adapted to distance running!  As it was undulating I guessed it might be around 35 minutes so was delighted to find that I finished in 31:49.  I was 2nd lady in my age category and 99th out of the field of 146 runners.

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