Well hello again you mad mad people!!! Once again your back for more, hard to tell if you like it or are just gluten for punishment 😂😂😂😂. Fair to say it has been a landmark week along with some realisation!!!!
So since the last time and the whole SU2C 10K (first 10k I ever did etc etc, beat Bill Bailey and Sporty Spice got a taxi blah blah blah) I thought I might be in trouble. My left knee was painful, not in agony but it hurt…a hell of a lot, my hip felt a little delicate to if I’m honest, sleep was an issue as it would take me ages to find a comfy spot and by the time I did it felt like I had to get up again, I was like a doddery old fella getting out of any car and you would normally hear the Murtaugh line from lethal weapon “I’m getting to old for this shit” as I did. (getting in early with some quotes today ha!!!!) I was quite worried though as I knew another 10K loomed in just days, obviously I still had some stiffness……in my legs (one track mind you lot!!!) as it had been the longest distance I had ever run and along with the left knee and my hips acting like OAP’s thoughts of, non compete, kept creeping in. That couldn’t happen though, I was looking forward to this, this one I wanted, this one meant alot!!! If I do this I’m half way through, if I do this it shows that I can do something when I put my mind to it and it also means that the paranoia at the start no longer exists at all!!!! The power of positive thinking must have worked as the day before the event things felt better, less aches, less pains everything was returning to normal…..well as normal as things get for me, I don’t do normal well, weird…well I’m a master but normal, that’s challenging 😁🤓.
This weekend had been planned massively, the day before to my parents place trying to avoid the Al paca they call a bed (sorry mum & dad but that bed is furry!!!!!) To be fair I complained when we got there and it was duly sorted out, it was great service and I would definitely stay at the establishment again (little trip advisor in the blog of my stay with parents 😂😂🤣🤣). Little happen that day, it was all about relaxing, so much so we hired a car to have a relaxing experience bigger than we thought we could have, Air con to stop the heat debilitating us, mixed in with heated seat just cos we could 🤣😂😂🤣, that car was lush and I really consider jail time if it meant we could keep it lol!!! The other thing of which little happened was Teddy and sleeping!!!! Yep the little master, the mini me if you will, decided he was not happy with his new sleeping apparatus and was not best pleased that the world as he knew it was hot again!!! Just before 11pm he woke up and an hour and a half later was still awake!!! I retreated to another bedroom (which happened to be cooler as well) to try to get some sleep!! My long-suffering partner was left with the boy and his reluctance to get shut-eye!! I believe that around 6am he finally went off but as good as that sounds it wasn’t ideal, we all had to be up and gone by half 7 and now he was in, what appeared to be, a proper deep sleep!! Advantage taken as I had a bath to relax the muscles a bit and me and Mary managed to get ready but we needed to wake him up or it was all gonna go horribly wrong lol!!! Never wake a sleeping baby they say, well tough Daddy has to be somewhere lad now awake you will be, to be fair though he handled it well, he say his grandpa and he was happy!! 20 mins late leaving, not to shabby for us actually that’s seriously good for us and I was impressed!!! I was worried that I was gone end up begin the last one of the team to arrive!!! That’s right I was part of a team this time. An old friend of mine from school was doing the run as well with the running club she was involved with an invited me in!! A massive thank you to both Wendy Harding and the Heavitree running club for letting me join in with them, they made the day so much more enjoyable. Not inly that but Wendy went on a real push with my Just Giving page, sharing the life out of it and making sure it reached as many people as possible, I can’t actually put in to words the gratitude I have for those efforts but she needs to believe that I really appreciate everything she did from the minute I accepted the invitation to run with the group. She is a wonderful person with a massive heart and once again THANK YOU!!!!!
We weren’t last, in fact we were first, we went right in parked up nice and easy like and then DISASTER!!!!!! 🤤😲😫😨😵 My phone wasn’t with me, Mary had a message in her Facebook wall (if I say Facebook enough fo you think Facebook would sponsor me Facebook) from my Dad, yep my Dad is live on Facebook with his smart phone, saying I had left it there. We now had a problem, all my registration details were on that phone as I had gone paperless (carbon foot print and all that). 😣😢😭 Had I messed this up at the final hurdle!? I called my Dad explained it and he said he would bring it down, sounds easy enough right…..wrong, my mum was at work with their car, they lived 20 mins away and I was running at 9am!!!! Oh and my Dad is currently not in tip-top health himself but he was coming down with it bless him and even though I managed to register, warm up and actually start the race before he arrived is not important, the fact he took the time to walk to his car, then drive to Exeter to make sure I had my phone was amazing!!! I don’t say it often enough what bloke does, but I love my Dad to bits. I thought he may have stayed but he had gone home again by the time I found out he had been!!! Anyway race time arrived and away we went, 100m and the 1st inflatable was there, a little slope and slid and the 1st burn as I slide on to my right elbow 🤣😂🤣😂, amazing 1 obstacle down, already hurt. The plan was to use the obstacles as we went as the rest points, to get the breathers we needed to then carry on running……well NO that was never gonna happen, the large bouncy castles were harder work than the running bit lol!!! Up, down, over, under, climbs, slides and dodging and repeat basically but man was it fun, 2.5k done and a little water break at the mid way station, bottle refilled and an energy bar basically inhaled and we were away again, 5 more obstacles to go till we were at the 5k halfway point. At this point I began to wonder if I had done the right thing doing a 10K, I was breathless and struggling a little and even considered doing 5K and stopping!!!! £7.50 to add the extra lap or not the thought had crossed my mind lol!! I slowly got going properly again, bounced around on the obstacles and short bursts of running, the people I was running with geeing everyone up and praising efforts, superb I felt good again as the last 2 inflatable’s came in to view, 2 climbs and a death slide and I was half way through. Climbing over that penultimate one felt good and a burst if energy came as the crowd clapped us along, then the last obstacle of this lap was in front of us, tired and sweaty we had to climb to height of a tree, why would you do that to someone who has just run 5K!!!! Then down a huge death slide with a face that would terrify Freddie and Jason out of there dead lifeless faces and Lap 1 was complete!!! A quick wave and hello to Mary and Teddy (there smiles just filled me up and refreshed me) and off we went again, back on the start line going past all the fresh faces about to start their wave amd we were back at it, back to that 1st (now 11th) obstacle, small slope and slide and again a right elbow burn!!!! On the same bit as last time, how, why, damn it!!!!!! Run run run run (walk walk) run rum obsticale back to the up, down, over, under, climb and slide but weirdly it was getting easier, we were passing people doing their 5K, the legs felt good and we pushed through back to the water station. Another refill and another energy bar and off we went again, boing, boing, bouncy, bouncy, run, run past 7.5k!!!! We only had a 1/4 of this to go now, okay I still walked the hilly bits but I tried not to as much as possible but these damn inclines are my nemesis!!!!! 1k left and 2 obsticles to go, speed increased again as the crowd came back around, now I’m encouraging and feeling a little less tired. A climb and 1 last run and we were back at the end but this time it wasn’t the death slide, this time it was the leap of faith. We climbed up to the top to be greeted with a sheer drop, now not normally one to worry or scare easy when fronted up with these sorts of things but when I got up there and looked down, I’m not afraid to admit, my butt puckered just a bit!!! The count…..3………2………1……….go…….NOTHING a little edge forward but a mind change as my legs stayed where they were!!! The head argument started “come in ya wimp, what are you doing just jump” 3……2……..1……. (again) and I jumped, a weird feeling as my stomach moved up to where my lungs were and my lungs tried to escape lol!!! I was down and my shoe was off on landing as I struggled to move on out of the crash landing mat that had just swallowed me whole lol!!! A little help and I was out, I ran for the line and it was done, I had actually finished it. 10K complete, half of the challenge was done and it was only really 7 months in to it!!! I was amazed, proud and a bit emotional (inside only)!!! Mary and Teddy were waiting to hug and kiss the very sweaty me and take a couple of pics!!! The medal and T-shirt give, along with a bottle of Yazoo (at that point the best friggin’ milkshake ever) and now my mind wanted to go around a 3rd time, I felt good adrenaline or not I wanted another go around but it wasn’t going to happen!! A few more pics amd Teddy joining in with a warm up for the last morning wave of runners later we were done amd ready to leave. Knowing that half the challenge was finished thoughts kinda moved to the second half and the realisation that I was gonna have to find a HALF MARATHON to do set in, ahhhh crap this shit just got real lol!!!!!
After that we had lunch with a couple of the team which was great before we headed off of a little mini family break (our 1st with Teddy as well) in Dawlish, breaking my AIR B&B virginity in a very lush house which made us realise exactly what we want to buy!!! Fish and chips, Ice Cream, the seaside, black swans and amusement arcades, all equalling a very relaxing break after a very busy couple of days. The problem with breaks is they always come to an end and normality has to creep back in, that said we loved every minute of it and we look forward to the next part. All I know at this point is that if it wasn’t for Mary then I may well have given up by now but she pushes me forward and gives me the belief I can do every single part of this!! For that I am so thankful and I love her to bits and in November when we get married I will definitely be, not only the happiest but the luckiest man on this place we call earth!!!
Along with all of this though I have had an influx of donations and the smile on my face because of it is huge and I thank every single one of you who donated from the bottom of my heart, what makes it even sweeter is that some of the people who gave me money have never even met me!! That’s just amazing and humbling. So be like these people if you can and please please donate to my cause so I can give back to the people who helped my family through some terrible times!!! You can do that at http://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/2yrsrunning17. Everything raised will be split between the two areas!!
Now here are a couple of pictures of what happened this weekend to make you laugh or smile!!! Untill next time, keep smilin’
Laters
2 YEARS RUNNING 