The Dementia Revolution at the London marathon 2019

Where on earth do I begin my write-up about this?

For the 14 years I've been supporting ARUK I've dreamt about dementia being the chosen charity at the London marathon so when they joined forces with the Alzheimer's Society to fund the Dementia Research Institute it really was a dream come true and what a dream-team the Dementia Revolution has been!

Having completed VLM 10 times before I decided that 2019, my 11th running of it, would be my last as a charity runner as there are so many people wanting to run it now and share their stories about the horrors of dementia. So my 11th running of VLM was also my 167th marathon for dementia research and I had planned to go for a pb which would have been sub 4:30. However, having 3 months out of action due to injury at the start of the year and recurring issues with plantar fasciitis did not bode well and I'd already settled for just getting round comfortably and would have been quite happy with anything under 6 hours!

I'd treated myself to some new purple and grey shorts and a new purple cap to which I just attached my 100 Marathon Club badge. 

We had to make the painful decision for Mike not to come with me this time as Tilly the cat was quite unwell and we didn't want to leave her alone - if he'd come with me we'd both have been worried about her and if he stayed at home we knew he'd worry about me. I promised I'd be careful and so he stayed with her.

I arrived at Blackheath bright and early and promptly went to a cafe we've frequented on several occasions before heading off to Greenwich Park for a photo shoot with some fellow Dementia Revolution runners.

In this version I'm looking down whilst chatting with  the ladies on either side of me (2nd row next to the lady with bare arms) but you get to see more people!

Whilst all this was going on Scott Harvey Mitchell was busy doing a brilliant PR job as usual whilst celebrating his birthday before actually running the marathon with fellow celebrities from Eastenders!

I knew it was going to be a very emotional day for so many reasons but I really struggled to keep it together when I saw the amazing support teams. OMG they were absolutely AWESOME! That sea of pale blue on each side of the road with odd pockets of people supporting their family and friends was amazing. Then all the runners too. Oh, it was just perfect.

However, my journey certainly didn't go to plan as my right knee started to play up at mile 16 and I had to walk from mile 19 onwards. I've never walked in the London marathon before and it was the most amazing experience because the crowd just carried me to the end, shouting out my name and encouraging me. I had a great big smile on my face and the commentators kept spotting me and calling me the lady with the biggest smile. 

There were lots of people walking in the last few miles and as we were heading along the road towards Buckingham Palace I was walking next to a young girl who'd had problems with her ankle and declared it was her first and last marathon! I told her she needed to do a victory run/jog when we got to the Palace and for some unknown reason said I'd run with her to help keep her going (which was a rather silly thing to say as I was limping along at the time!).

So when we reached the 800m to go marker (photo taken by a friend before the race, hence no runners!) she said "let's run from here" my legs didn't really like that idea at all but obliged with a slow jog. As we progressed to about 200m to the finish line I told her we should do a victory sprint, 'cos I couldn't feel my legs by this stage anyway, so off I went but she didn't!

So although it ended up being my slowest ever road marathon (5:30:52) it was certainly one of the most enjoyable 

Now to get my knee sorted out before my next big challenge..........

I must just mention my young chum James who ran his 300th marathon at London in a fantastic time of  03:14:18, to get himself a Guinness World Record for the youngest person to complete 300 marathons. Fabulous and well deserved young man!

Another fab story you may have read about in the newspapers or seen on the news was Lukas Bates,  a fellow  runner for the Dementia Revolution, who was trying to get a Guinness World Record wearing a costume of a famous landmark - Big Ben. Unfortunately the costume was too tall to get under the finish line gantry and there are some very funny video clips of it if you take a look at the link. But that's not the best bit - he went for a drink in a pub afterwards and left his costume outside which was then stolen by some fellow runners, as a result of which his £1000 fund-raising target has been well and truly smashed as people have been making donations which have now reached £5000!

Also, apparently there were more people finishing the London marathon then ever before; 42,549 to be precise which was 2,000 more than in 2018!

Now for the sad news

5 years ago we visited the Blue Cross Rescue Centre and our beautiful girl wrapped her tail around our hearts and chose us as her forever family. She was 7 years old and had not had a happy life up until then and we vowed to keep her safe and told her she'd be well loved.

Today our beloved Tilly was fading so quickly we knew she needed us to make that dreaded phone call and we headed off to see the vet. Although she had to leave us far too soon, she will never be forgotten. 

We buried her in the orchard near Barney and Tinker.

Rest in peace beautiful girl.

Knots, a Special Tee & a Fond Farewell to our horsey guests

Getting tied in Knots

I forgot all about the short workshop/demonstration I went to a few weeks ago.  It was an Introduction to Macrame, the art of knotting to create interesting  patterns and my mum used to do it back in the 1960s/70s. I still have some of her old books about it but you can't beat a hands-on demonstration to get the creative juices flowing and I have wanted to have a go at it for ages.

I've signed up for this course 4 years in a row but each time in the past it's been cancelled through lack of interest so I half expected it to be cancelled again but this time it was OK.  It was held in Uckfield in a room adjacent to a Farm Shop so as I always arrive way too early I had time to mooch around beforehand.

Lovely big pumpkins

Large colonies of Armillaria, aka Honey Fungus, on a dead tree stump

I sat by this lake for a while and enjoyed the beautiful reflections whilst watching several different variety of Dragonflies flitting around

Once everyone had arrived and we'd settled down with a cup of coffee we started to play.  There were 2 ladies who were in-laws, an older lady with her daughter (which reminded me of the things I used to do with my mum), a lady who wanted to make bracelets for her grandchildren, a middle-aged man  and me.

The lady leading the group was very nice and friendly but not especially good at explaining things and when she demonstrated the techniques it was sometimes difficult for some people to see exactly what she was doing.

We were given a clipboard and told to choose a stick and some ready-cut lengths of thread

We attached 6 lengths of thread, doubled, onto our sticks

She demonstrated several techniques then we started to play - I could not get into the rhythm of the first knots at all and got very confused (left under right over left, pull through and round etc etc)!

I found the next one a bit easier to grasp

The next one, in the middle, went horribly wrong again!

She showed us the method for creating this diagonal line of knots and I was completely bamboozled (see below), as indeed were all the others!

LOL, could do better!!!

Then we had a coffee break before she left us to choose what we wanted to create next and all the others started to make friendship bracelets with beads for their children/grandchildren but I wanted to master the knots before I embarked on a project.

So I played and I played until it all clicked into place.  The next 3 photos are a world away from the mess I created at first!

Knot 1

Knot 2

Knot 3

Then I decided to experiment with Knot 1 above by using embroidery thread and cord to see what effect I'd get.  I absolutely loved it and the teacher took photos of my knots and showed them to everyone else. Ha, not the class dunce any more thank goodness!

I haven't experimented with it any more yet but the technique is now in my head and I will have a few more goes before I tackle a specific project.

Dementia Revolution

I have  a talk to do about dementia in the next few weeks and so I ordered a new tee shirt to wear for the occasion.  I love the colour and the brain pattern is quite edgy isn't it.  It is  a bit on the baggy side though but that doesn't really matter in the scheme of things.

Bye-bye ladies

It's been lovely having Heather's 7 beautiful brood mares with us and I've thoroughly enjoyed getting my horsey fix every day.  Poo-picking is excellent cross-training!  But all good things have to come to an end eventually and their foals had weaned really quickly so it was time for them to go home (some to new owners in France, others to prepare for their next visit to the stallion, 2 already in-foal and will be ready for foaling early next year).

My poo pile looked as if it was smoking in the early-morning light!

Mike with Quail Landing who's in-foal and due next April.  She's had 2 miscarriages recently, poor darling and she's been much more subdued than usual.

Serena Grae came to the gate to greet me every morning

She has the most beautiful eyelashes

Alsacienne, on the right is bullied by the others and always stands away from the herd, poor darling.  She has a massive lump on her head where one of them kicked her.

When Heather and her stable lady came to collect them, the lane was really busy with huge grain trucks at regular intervals, so I suggested they take them back along our drive rather than trekking the length of the lane from our far field which is .3 mile away and on a narrow stretch of the lane.  Each time 2 horses went, the others started calling like mad and when there was just Taffeta and Alsacienne left they galloped around like loons until they were all lathered up!

I offered to take my washing in but the horses were completely unfazed by it.

Bye ladies, see some of you next year

PS: yes, I did shed a tear or two when the horses left and I'm trying hard to resist the urge to take in some more rescue horses.

Nick update

Just a quick update on Nick who I wrote about recently - yesterday he set another world record at Day 4 of Dead Running in New Mexico - 176 x 50ks in 365 days.  The man's a machine!

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!