Extreme Knitting Redhead: So It Begins (with thanks to Tolkien & King Théoden for the quote)

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

So It Begins (with thanks to Tolkien & King Théoden for the quote)

A Happy New Year to everyone with apologies for my last gloomy post. Normal bounciness has now been resumed and positivity abounds.

2018 is well and truly on the go with marathon 135 done and dusted in torrential rain on 1st January. This was a head-down-and-grind-it-out sort of marathon as the rain started 15 minutes after we set off and didn't abate at all. We were lucky to be running on the tarmac cycle track over at Betteshanger again and you would think that it wouldn't get puddles - wrong! Great big puddles which got bigger and bigger throughout the day and you just had to splosh through them in true trail-running style.

I wore my snazzy new technical running jacket with all sorts of fancy features. Did you click on the link and nearly faint at the price? Well I bought mine for less than a third of the price, brand new, on eBay and I thought that was a bit pricey! This jacket is what's known as 'Mandatory Kit' for many Ultra running events and offers all sorts of protective features so I needed to feel comfortable running in it long before my next fund-raising Challenge event which I'll be announcing very soon. Did it keep me warm and dry - it certainly kept the bits it covered nice and dry but my legs and feet were soaked through for the whole run! Now I'm going to investigate over-trousers............

The other thing I was trying out was my nutrition strategy (sounds serious doesn't it!). You see I always run my marathons/shortish ultras in a 'fasted' state ie I don't eat before or during the race (the only exception being the London marathon as a big breakfast is part of our routine there really early in the morning, sorry I digress). So I nibbled a little something every 6 miles to see if anything upset my tummy. I was fine.

My goal was to get below 5 hours again to get 2018 off to a good start and I was delighted to finish in 4:53:18 especially as I hadn't held off the goodies throughout Christmas!

The next 67 (I think that's right) days are going to be very focused on both nutrition and training. After a little celebratory glass or 2 of red wine at NY I am now going alcohol-free until after my event and I'm going to be tweaking my diet slightly to get myself in the best shape I can. On that note, I'm now taking part in a 30 Day Squat Challenge (ouch, they hurt!) with some chums and I'll be heading out to Bootcamp nearby when it starts up again next week together with my usual weekly yoga sessions.

In other news it's nearly time for the West Highland Way Knitalong to start and I'm really looking forward to playing around with some interesting colourwork.

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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.