It was never going to be an easy seven days. First week of term, 3 new student groups, nearing 40 new faces on Monday alone. Track Tuesday, Run2Work Thursday, household stuff to deal with on Friday (including the delivery of my new, much anticipated futon; did I mention I’ve been sleeping on the floor for a week!?), UKRunChat Challenge on Saturday, Salford City 10k on Sunday with a publically announced intention to PB in sub 40... Aaaaand…. All go again on Monday for academic week 2 of 36. Ever feel you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?
Well, I’m no stranger to busy weeks so taking each day at a time, Monday went really well. The new group showed promise, we had a genuinely good day and I was, at about half past five in the evening, having happily cycled home from work, enjoying a short 30 minute canal run in ‘recovery’ from the previous day’s 12 miler and feeling pretty positive about life, the universe and everything. Until, that is, I caught my toe in a hole provided by an absent cobble and decided to find out if those remaining would like to make friends with my forehead. Fast. In fact, the guy I had been about to overtake, who was listening to music on in-ear headphones, told me the only reason he turned round was not that he heard but that he felt the vibration as I hit the ground. Hard. Core. So it turns out cobbles don’t want to be best pals with my cranium. So much for the ‘recovery’ run. Skip the feel good stories relating to the kindness of strangers and excellent NHS care (no sarcasm there by the way, I was genuinely very well looked after) and I trundled home from A&E in the early hours with the gradually creeping feeling that my week had been somewhat derailed. Funnily enough, one of the main reasons they kept me in so long (aside from wiping the blood off, gluing the hole in my head and generally making sure I hadn’t broken anything except my pride) was owing to my apparent bradycardia. This is basically a condition in which the patient has a worryingly low heart rate. Mine was 38. Apparently they expect 50 even in very fit people. If I’d been a bit more with it I might have pointed out that my usual resting heart rate is around 40 anyway but I was feeling a bit groggy for some reason. Thankfully, one doctor eventually concluded that I was simply ‘super fit’. He wasn’t so bad himself.
Well, I’m no stranger to busy weeks so taking each day at a time, Monday went really well. The new group showed promise, we had a genuinely good day and I was, at about half past five in the evening, having happily cycled home from work, enjoying a short 30 minute canal run in ‘recovery’ from the previous day’s 12 miler and feeling pretty positive about life, the universe and everything. Until, that is, I caught my toe in a hole provided by an absent cobble and decided to find out if those remaining would like to make friends with my forehead. Fast. In fact, the guy I had been about to overtake, who was listening to music on in-ear headphones, told me the only reason he turned round was not that he heard but that he felt the vibration as I hit the ground. Hard. Core. So it turns out cobbles don’t want to be best pals with my cranium. So much for the ‘recovery’ run. Skip the feel good stories relating to the kindness of strangers and excellent NHS care (no sarcasm there by the way, I was genuinely very well looked after) and I trundled home from A&E in the early hours with the gradually creeping feeling that my week had been somewhat derailed. Funnily enough, one of the main reasons they kept me in so long (aside from wiping the blood off, gluing the hole in my head and generally making sure I hadn’t broken anything except my pride) was owing to my apparent bradycardia. This is basically a condition in which the patient has a worryingly low heart rate. Mine was 38. Apparently they expect 50 even in very fit people. If I’d been a bit more with it I might have pointed out that my usual resting heart rate is around 40 anyway but I was feeling a bit groggy for some reason. Thankfully, one doctor eventually concluded that I was simply ‘super fit’. He wasn’t so bad himself.
Cue Tuesday mostly spent asleep (so much for track!), Wednesday feeling pretty damn sorry for myself, Thursday back in work but still feeling rough (may be next month I’ll run to work!) and that was that week pretty much chewed up, spat out and thoroughly not to plan! Thankfully, after a decent night’s sleep finally (ahh, my comfy new futon is love at first kip!) I was somewhat anxiously ready to brave my first run since what I now think of as the Aborted Run of Cobble Doom. This run was a (thankfully!) gentle 10k in Bolton with the UKRunChat guys Joe and Jeff, along with a few other tweeters who were all meeting up in the flesh to support the challenge. |
Set up by Joe and Jeff, UKRunChat, is an online community, mostly on Twitter, whose aim is to support runners of every level of speed, experience, preferred distance or motivation to achieve their running goals. The Challenge is their attempt to raise £35,000 for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and Epilepsy Research UK by running 50km a day (in 5 separate 10k runs) in 35 locations across 7 days. Wow. I’d already established that despite having registered for the 10k tomorrow, today’s run in Bolton was the only time I’d be able to hook up with them so there was no way I was missing it. In light of the weeks events, I also began to feel it was probably psychologically quite important to know I was even able to run before tomorrow! It was really great to meet them eventually. Of course, I have become familiar with the guys remotely; I had a long ‘phone chat with Joe a few weeks back (I hope to become more involved in what they are doing soon, after completing the Leadership in Running Fitness course next week but more of that soon) and frequently tweet with them during UKRunChat hours on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. |
Despite the benefits of social media however, it’s always different to actually meet someone and I felt instantly comfortable with them, falling into standard ‘runner talk’ and sharing in their enthusiasm for their challenge (Well. It is only day 1!). I reluctantly admitted my ‘adventure’ on Monday, as soon as Joe started asking Jeff if he’d seen my race times! ‘Don’t worry!’ I assured them, ‘There’s no way I’ll be running that speed today! Look, I’ve just noticed there’s even still blood on my trainers!’ And there was. Ugh. So with a patched up knee, and a suppressed anxiety about running in the first place, I set off with the gang into a rainy Bolton Saturday. Most people agreed they liked running in the rain. Takes all sorts. For myself, I was less bothered about the rain in my face (thanks to the vainly donned cap I was wearing to hide my new third eye!) than I was worried about it being slippery. ‘Please don’t let me fall again!’ I was thinking. But I didn’t. I forgot all about it very soon and simply enjoyed the run. Staying true to the name, it was a very UKRunChatty one and I remembered very quickly how happy running makes me, especially when I get to do it whilst simultaneously nattering to others! |
All that worry soon evaporated and when we arrived at the finish (the Reebok stadium) I was genuinely surprised. ‘10k!? Already!? Must have been 5!?’ Nope; 10 it was and the crew leapt in their van to head off to Lancaster, before swinging past Kendal and then on to ‘somewhere near Glasgow’. I sadly boarded the train back to Manchester, having toyed with the idea of hitching a lift to Lancaster but eventually seeing sense and remembering my Salford City date in the morning! Instead, I sat on the train eating my lunch, wet but happy and so very glad I’d had the chance to support Joe and Jeff in their challenge as well as in their wider community project. When I looked down… I noticed all that rain… it had washed the blood clean off my trainers.
If you would like to support the UKRunChat 2014 Challenge, you can sponsor them here.
If you would like to support the UKRunChat 2014 Challenge, you can sponsor them here.