More photos from Beachy Head

In my last post I said there was a funny story involving Ant from sussexsportphotography.com and it happened here which I think is around Jevington. Look at me leading the pack - I expect they all overtook me shortly after that!

I'll let the captions tell the story:

I've just spotted Ant crouching by the side of the path and he's clicking away at me like one of the paparazzi

He continued to click away and apologised to the 2 men behind saying "sorry guys, she's famous" (silly boy!)

As you'd expect they then asked why and he said " she used to be a Guinness World Record holder" and I shouted back "still am actually!"

Waving bye-bye to the naughty Ant!

This of course lead to a chat with the 2 men who asked if Ant was my official photographer who follows me around. 

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

I managed to keep my face straight and replied that yes indeed he's always around when I'm running (tee hee!) before I said that actually Ant and his team spend hours out and about at races taking photos of runners and that they should buy his photos. They then pushed on ahead of me. I get overtaken on all the downhills and flat bits but then I often overtake the same people on the uphill bits! I thought I wouldn't see them again but I went past them around 18 miles when they were fading a bit.

Ant's team were out and about all around the route and they really deserve medals for their endurance. They have to sit still in one place for hours upon end; the time limit is 9 hours so there are walkers coming in long after the runners have finished. You can imagine how tough that can be on a cold, wet and windy day. Top marks to all your team Ant xxx.

One of the slightly flinty downhill bits - not sure where it was, they all look the same after a while

Behind me you can see the the Litlington White Horse by the Cuckmere valley

In the next few you'll see Belle Tout in the background which I wrote about in my previous post. The good thing is that it means I was near the finish, well a couple of miles perhaps, and had scaled the heights of the 7 Sisters. The 2 men in front had been walking all the way up the hill and then started running and posing for Ant who had moved to this new position.

Ant used this photo in his blog captioned 'Suzie (sp!) receives a guard of honour'. The photo below that one on his blog shows my friend Ruth lying on her back at the same spot. He also took loads of photos of her struggling to her feet!

The men then both did  a Mobot and Ant commented they were the first to do one that day. As I'd never done one before I decided I would too.

I'm gonna do one too

I Mobot!

I did it!

"The hills are alive………"

Bye Ant and thanks

In this next two I really am on the home straight. It's a flat bit for a while and then it goes down hill again. To my left in the first photo are a couple of walkers who I chatted with for a few minutes. They spotted my ARUK vest and wanted to talk about a new initiative to pay GPs £55 for every diagnosis of dementia. We all agreed that the idea of incentivising something that should be part of good practice is just wrong - good GPs will be doing it anyway and the bad ones will just make a diagnosis of dementia without checking that the symptoms presented relate to dementia and could not be anything else.  I would much rather the money be used for research into the disease and it was interesting to get the reaction of people who had no experience of dementia in their lives.

So here I am, sprinting (ish) towards the finish line having just come very carefully down the hill we went up at the start. It was so very slippery and I hate going downhill anyway so I was extra careful.

Make no mistake, this is a tough trail marathon and certainly not for the faint-hearted, but it still remains my favourite off-road marathon. There is such wonderful camaraderie amongst participants and people come back year after year.

So that is definitely the end of my 2014 challenge. Watch out for the launch of my next one at the start of November.

Marathon 38, the end of my 2014 Challenge for Alzheimer's Research UK

Don't worry though, there's another challenge about to start!

But first let's get up to date with the last part of my 2014 challenge, the Beachy Head marathon, my favourite trail marathon, with the Three Forts Challenge a close second. I love running up on the South Downs as the views are spectacular if the weather is good, which it certainly was yesterday. Not too hot, slightly overcast and with just the gentlest of breezes. The only slight issue was that the ground was rather slippery in parts because of the heavy rain during the week but that was a minor niggle.

My right hamstring is still rather tight and I knew it wasn't going to enjoy some of the steeper descents and I wasn't wrong! No worries though as I wasn't chasing a fast time, I just wanted to get round in one piece and enjoy the day.

I haven't got any photos of me yet from Sussexsportphotography.com but I have a funny story to tell when Ant sends them through!

I'll let the photos I took en-route speak for themselves as they give a good feel of the route and the atmosphere.

A moody sky over the sea 

An ambulance positioned at the foot of the first hill!

The registration area where you collected your timing chip

The obligatory queue for the toilets!

The inflatable 'start' line with mats that you have to run over to activate your race timing chip (attached to you ankle)

There are lots more photos of the route in my post from 2012 where I took a loads more photos than I did yesterday.

The piper at the top of the first hill - this year everyone wanted to have their photo taken with him

This lady wanted a better view so climbed up onto the monument! - she wasn't a runner

Looking back over Eastbourne

The mud on one of the early slopes was very slippery!

The expansive views are so beautiful they take your breath away

Look how tiny those runners look in the landscape

The sun popped out for a while and some of the paths dried up. This one is mostly chalk with loose flints on top, which can cause you to trip, so sensible runners chose the path along the grass

There are lots of feed stations en-route where you can get a cup of water and a biscuit but the one around mile 16 is special - they have cups of tea, squash, sausage rolls (not for us vegetarians of course) and hot cross buns. My friend's husband took a great photo of me stuffing my face with a hot cross bun on my first ever Beachy marathon back in 2006, just before I started my blog, but I can't find it (thankfully!). There is always a band there too and this year they were very good. I took a short video of it but I can't get it to load on here.

The reason it's a special feed station; they're preparing you for the toughest part of the course!

Refreshed by a cup of tea and food we trekked up this grassy bank which was very slippery - it's hard to show just how steep that bit is

After the grassy slope we go downhill, across a flat bit, over a bridge and then wallop, it's the first long set of steps, but there are much steeper and longer ones to come……..

…and here they are. I turned around about 1/2 way up and shouted "smile please". I don't think the man on the  right felt like smiling though!

After scaling the steps we climb over a low stone wall and run down a really steep grassy slope to go past Cuckmere Haven

This is the view when at the bottom of the first hill

This is the view, using the same zoom, but from the top of the hill! I wish I could have captured the sound of the sea crashing against the shoreline (which is pebbles) as it was magnificent

A side view of one of the 7 Sisters

Only another 3 Sisters to go. On the top of the last one you can see the Belle tout lighthouse which is famous for being featured in a TV series "the Life and Times of a She Devil' many years ago and for having been moved further back from the edge of the cliffs (yes really!) because of coastal erosion. The other thing of note is the row of houses just before there as last year one of them had to be demolished and the remainder repaired and strengthened, again due to coastal erosion you can read about it here

People have been warned to stay away from the edge of the cliffs because they are unstable. Last time I ran this there wasn't any chalk visible along the top of the cliffs

A group of twitchers waiting for a bird to appear from the bushes

You can tell how windy it gets up there from the growth of this tree

Heading back down the hill to the finish line

I think this photo gives a better feel of just how steep that blimming hill is. I picked my way down by going sideways and very slowly!

This van positioned just after the finish line made me smile with it's logo copying that of the post office

As I haven't got a finish line photo yet I'll share this one from 2006 which I think really captures the spirit of it:

Heading for the finish line with Jan in 2006, my first Beachy Head marathon. We ran half of it together and it was such great fun

The last marathon medal in my 2014 challenge

More photos to follow soon.

At last, after many years………….

……we've finally launched a live test of Join dementia research, in the North & West London areas, where people can register their interest in taking part in dementia research. You can click on the link above to see what it's all about. You can also read more about it here on ARUK's dementia blog.

I've been going on about the need for something like this ever since my mum died back in 2005. For years it felt as if I was banging my head against a brick wall but finally we seem to have loosened a brick or two and things have moved forward.

I first became interested in this project back in 2009 after having attended the Ministerial summit on dementia when 2 of the issues I was passionate about were highlighted namely:

1. the need for a register linking patients with dementia to researchers in the field
2. dementia research charities forging closer links with the pharmaceutical industry

At the summit I met follower campaigners and also a representative of DeNDRoN (dementia and neurodegenerative diseases research network) who I've written about before. For a while I heard nothing more about it until I was invited to represent Alzheimer's Research uk at a meeting to discuss the way forward. There are also representatives of the Alzheimers Society. Both ARUK and the Alzheimer's Society will be manning the helplines for Join dementia research.

Originally the project was being developed under the working title of the RAFT register i.e. Recruitment And Feasibility Tool. That title really didn't appeal to anyone except the technical development team so one of the first things we did was brainstorm a more user friendly name for it! I won't bore you with the details, the restrictions etc, suffice to say it felt like pulling teeth and well done to everyone who finally settled on 'Join dementia research' which conveys exactly the right message.

After a few meetings the project stalled but then last year it all started to get very exciting with software development and strategy meetings.

The start of this year saw many of us involved in a conclave to discuss the way the system worked and iron out any issues in the development phase before the system could go 'live'. This involved scrutinising every bit of how the system worked, e.g. was it user-friendly, were the right questions asked, did it work well from the researchers point of view, how did it look from the user's viewpoint, etc etc. It wasn't something you could just look at quickly and agree, you had to really concentrate and I spent ages each week going back over the test screens to see if all the links worked and the wording was easy to understand.

Then back in July the system went into live trials just in the one region to iron out any teething problems before it went across all regions.

At the moment there are already 569 registrations which is absolutely brilliant!

Last week I went into London and met some new recruits who have volunteered to help spread the word in they respective regions. The event was hosted by Adam Smith, DeNDRoN programme manager seen here talking with Julia Simister, Research Delivery Manager DeNDRoN for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex region. I'm hoping we'll be joining forces to help spread the word when the system gives across all regions.

 

After we'd all introduced ourselves, Adam started by giving an outline of what the service is all about, the benefits, how it will be implemented in the future and what the role of Champions will be. I must note that we Champions are not employed by them and our work is done on a purely voluntary basis with just our travel expenses reimbursed.

Then there was a little slot entitled 'Campaign planning - a personal journey' which was my cue. I'd received an email late the previous evening asking if I would mind telling my mum's story, my reasons for supporting Join dementia research and what I've done to publicise the work of Alzheimer's Research UK etc. Thankfully I'm done this so many times before that I'm quite comfortable standing up and talking about it, although I do sometimes get a bit teary.

I'd taken along my presentation slides from the Alzheimer's Show back in May as all the points on my first slide sum up why I've been supporting ARUK all these years. I did, however, temper down some of mum's story and missed out the really dreadful last couple of years because there were several people there who are living with some form of dementia themselves. During the lunch break many people cam ever to thank me and say that they identified with many of the things I'd said about how the disease progresses and to share their own experiences.

There were 4 tables with about 6 people on each, some have been involved with Join dementia Research for a while but other were new recruits and had travelled a long way to be present, which was wonderful.

After lunch there was some Media training giving tips on radio and TV interviews. For some, this was their first experience of interacting in this way but everyone did really well. Even though I've been a Media volunteer for ARUK for 10 years now there's always something you can pick up from this sort of session.

It was interesting that Peter, a fellow Champion seen seated at the front of the photo below, objected to references of people "suffering" from dementia/Alzheimer's. He prefers the term "living with" as he has a form of dementia that has allowed him to live happily with his condition for many years and said that he doesn't suffer at all. However, in my mum's case I know for sure that she did indeed suffer as she often remarked that she was tormented by not being able to remember things and that nothing made any sense any more. She was especially upset when she realised that Mike and I had to do so much for her. For someone as bright and intelligent as my mum it was indeed a torment.

A few of us were not able to stay for the whole afternoon but the photo below shows most of those attending.

As I was dashing off to catch my train, Zara & her camera caught me in the corridor. I must learn how to put my badge on straight!

So what happens next?

We make plans! How can we maximise the publicity for Join dementia research? How and by whom will the message be delivered? Who do we target? (e.g. local Care groups, Memory Clinic, WI groups, Doctors) How can each of use our unique skills to spread the word? This is so exciting and I am delighted to be a part of it.

Together we will make a difference.