Tag: Neurophysiotherapy

Yesterday marked a number of significant ‘milestones’ – an apt word for taking part in my first ever ‘Park Run’. 23rd April is our school friend Keren Harvey’s birthday. Protocol dictates that I shouldn’t give her age away, but it was 39 years ago that Alyson & me started ‘dating’ at Keren’s 18th birthday party.

I had been meaning to take part in our closest Park Run at Delamere Forest, situated between Northwich & Chester, for several weeks. Our son Michael could not run with me, having had a significant milestone of his own this week. He moved to work in the Sydney office of his company for at least 3 months. I had suggested to Michael that we do the run last Saturday. Apart from being busy with his packing, he observed that the publicity over a council starting to charge Park Run for using paths, which until then had been free, may have meant a larger turnout than usual showing their support for the organisation.

Checking the forecast all week it seemed that it might be wet. Being a fair-weather runner and unsure of my footing in slippery conditions, the prospects didn’t look good. On Friday I was mentally and physically tired from the events of the previous two days. However, on Saturday the sun was shining and it was a crisp, frosty start and I felt full of hope (and energy!). After an early breakfast I set off at 7.30am with the aim of arriving early, to see how the organisation of the run worked and to check the parking situation. I got to the main car park for 8am, and it was deserted save for a group of seven or eight of varying ages carrying logs and weights ready for an early morning workout with a personal trainer.

In the hour until the run started I checked out my fellow runners as they arrived and filled the car park. There were running club groups from Warrington, Ellesmere Port, with vaguely ‘Scouse’ accents, and others more from the more local rural villages in Cheshire, with less harsh voices. There were families with young children and pushchairs. There were couples of all ages and shapes in shockingly tight bright Lycra. A few singletons who, like me, appeared to be ‘first-timers’ arrived and jogged nervously round the car park and found the start about 200 yards away on the edge of the forest.  Then there were the inevitable dog-walkers.

Wearing my tracksuit jacket, thinking it may be cold, as 9am approached the sun shone and it was warm enough jogging on the spot. The top came off to reveal my 2006 Great North Run(GNR) t-shirt. I had chosen this partly as it is cotton and doesn’t rub when I run, but mainly to remind me of the last time I did an organised run. I completed my fifth GNR in a time of 2.5hrs and raised over £2,300 in memory of a church member who had died of bacterial meningitis just after Christmas that year. It was very emotional as I got to the home straight on South Shields sea front and imagined Mike running alongside me and encouraging me to finish. Today’s run would turn out to be equally emotional.

I had printed my Park Run bar code which you need to get a time for your run. Noticing it had Michael’s UK mobile number as an emergency contact, I text him to say I was doing the run but not sure what he would do if someone called about me at 6pm local time in Australia!. He wished me luck. About 300 of us gathered at the start and after a few brief instructions about the route and procedure at the finish we were off. Every runner is deemed to start at the same time and the 3o seconds or so it took me to cross the start point would be irrelevant as it is not the sort of event where seconds are important. The aim is running against yourself and improving your times over the weeks and months.

The course at Delamere is uphill through a forestry track for about 3/4 of a mile then a circuit of Blakemere Moss, a large pool in the middle of the forest, then back down to the start/finish near the visitor centre. I found myself at the very back of the run. I was ready for this as the main goal was to see if I could jog at a pace just above walking for the whole distance. Alyson & I had walked the course a few weeks earlier which helped as I was familiar with the terrain and where we were going. Having done quite a few 10k’s and half-marathons over the years I also knew that there would be some who set off like Usain Bolt for a few hundred yards then come to a complete stop and walking very slowly. So it was that a mother and young son were doing exactly that, and I spent the whole of the run going past them and waiting for them to go past me. Similarly a young woman and her mildly overweight friend were doing the same ‘shuttle runs’. They would have managed a lot better had they heeded the advice from the volunteer marshal at the second check-point to do more running and less gossiping!  They encouraged each other and I saw them at the end talking about doing it again next week; exactly what this event is all about.

It was all I could do to keep running in a vaguely straight line and not to trip as my footing & balance are less sure than they had been 10 years previously. As we jogged by the point where the track and pool meet the B-road through the forest, the sun came through an opening in the trees, and I took a quick glance at my watch. 20 minutes. At the front of the ‘race’ there were competitive types and the top 10 would already have finished. They would have had their cup of coffee and be in the car on the way home by the time I got to the end. By my estimate we were about halfway round, my breathing was steady and my legs had started to feel stronger and less heavy. This could have been the point where my enthusiasm got the better of me, so I resisted the temptation to start passing a few of those in front. I tripped over a tree root and came close to being face-down on the muddy ground!

Soon we were back on the track down to the Start/Finish line and I did indeed pass a few people on the way. The young lady marshal who earlier had told the two girls to stop chatting, shouted words of encouragement and said I was looking great. It lifted my spirits and I started to get emotional. Around four years ago I was training for a triathlon when I suffered a brain injury. After 10 weeks in hospital during which time I had not been able to speak, move my right side or stand, I took my first steps unaided on the day my mum died suddenly a week after visiting me in hospital. I also had a total hip replacement in 2013. My physio Annette specialises in using an hydrotherapy pool to remake connections between the brain and muscles which have been lost. After a year Annette got me standing correctly  and last November, rather than walking like a stiff-legged robot, she taught me how to run again. With exercises for both my core and improved balance, I resolved at New Year to start jogging again. Until yesterday my furthest distance was less than a kilometre on a gym running machine. I was tearful as I gave thanks to God for my faith, the support of my  family, friends and the prayers of my church fellowship that had got me to this next stage of my recovery.

Driving back home my car which reads texts to me announced that Park Run had messaged and interpreted 39.22 as ‘thirty nine hours and twenty two minutes’!

More Park Runs at Delamere and volunteering on other weekends are definitely on my list. My brother Andrew has a charity entry for this year’s Great North Run in September. If I can continue to improve you never know….at my present rate I could finish in less than 5.5hrs!

In honour of 23rd April milestone this year here are two Shakespeare quotes that you may think apply to my first blog post:

• “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” Romeo and Juliet

• “You speak an infinite deal of nothing.”  The Merchant of Venice

And a Biblical one to end on:

“…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us….” Hebrews  Chapter 12 v1.

For more information on Park Runs and to find the nearest one to you head over to 
www.parkrun.org.uk