When passions collide

Saturday 28^th  April

Distance: 4.39 mile
Time: 55:66 min
Avg Speed: 4:68 mph                            
Avg Pace: 12:70min/mile
Calories Burned: 594

I had a good run today even though I had to do a shorter one due to having a day of heavy commitments. So I decided to set off on my usual route but to detour at West Park. Having taken the detour I ran on through West Park then down Queenswood Drive(which I measured at 1.33miles), across to St Anne’s Lane and over the railway bridge (complete with passing train as I trotted over). I then turned along Newport View up Cardigan Road and onto home. It was a surprisingly challenging run as Queenswood drive was a lot more up and down than I realised and surprisingly the downs were quite hard as they were steep. At the end of it all though I was, as we say in these parts quite ‘chuffed’ with myself as I realised that I had only stopped twice (to blow my still runny nose!) my runs were more dominant than my walks. Slowly but surely I feel I am becoming a runner.

As I knew from the onset that my route would be different I further decided that my sound track would also be out of the ordinary. So I discarded my usual tracks of classic rock or current chart hits for The Eurovision Song Contest and not just any Euro contest at that, I listened to one of my favourites…2002. Let me state here and now that I am an out and out FAN of The Eurovision Song Contest. There I have said it. There are those amongst you, my friends and family, who will hold their hands up and shout “NOOOOOOOO” but I don’t care I love the whole bing-a-bang, la-la-lulay, Euro pop extravaganza. I love the whole quirkiness, the bizarre outfits, singing turkeys, simplistic lyrics, unrelenting pop rhythms, modulating final choruses, and the extreme vagaries and neighbourly tit-for-tat voting system. I love many kinds and styles of music but what I love about the Euro song shebang is just the pure joy and ridiculous nature of it all. The UK are putting up a 75 year old heart throb the Russians have the Babushkas and Ireland have Jedward!!! How can you not be drawn to that?

Yet love it as I do this year I will not be able to watch it live and engage in our usual tried and tested voting system – an excel page projected onto a large screen with our own scoring system. My Raison D’etre designed our voting system years ago and ‘we’ have categories such as costume, modulation, Euro factor and singalongability! Can I add at this juncture that the ‘we’ referred to in this paragraph is not just myself and the Raison D’etre. Oh no, there is group of my friends who also gather at our home each year and indulge in an evening of Euroness! We cook the foods (or try to find recipes) from the host country, festoon the house in flags and where ever possible try to immerse ourselves in the whole spectacle.

The reason why I (and all the other members of our little band) cannot see it live this year is that on the evening of 26^th May I will be partaking of another of my passions. I, along with my little Euro band will be performing in a show that I have produced to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of our wonderful Queen, Elizabeth II. Now therein lies another passion of mine. I am a huge Royalist, I am very proud of my country and in awe of the wonderful lady who reigns our nation. I love singing and doing shows I have been involved in amateur dramatics since I was 9 and it is in my blood, every year I do a pantomime and wherever possible a revue of some type. So to combine the two is a golden opportunity for a drama queen like me! Yet by tending to two of my passions I have to neglect another. Nevertheless thanks to the wonder of the internet and my new all singing all dancing TV with built-in BBC-iplayer and internet connection I can watch The Euro Contest on Sunday, I just won’t be able to vote this year but that is the price I am willing to pay. So please don’t tell me who wins I want to view for myself and pretend I am watching it live!!  Sad I know, but hey that’s what I do! I have passions and I follow them through.

So added to my list of passions is this new one of running and here I end with my usual link to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystophy.org  and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my ‘Just Giving’ account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.

Thank you for your support.

P.S.This week saw the death of Claire Squires in the London Marathon I salute her tenacity and dedication to a cause. A young life lost too soon. The Samaritans have received over £1m but I am sure they would have been happy with the £500 and her life to be lived. RIP Claire may you run with the angels.

Yorkshire Grit versus OCD

Saturday 21^st  April

Distance: 8.36 mile
Time: 1:54:03 min
Avg Speed: 4:37 mph                            
Avg Pace: 13:63min/mile
Calories Burned: 1133

Wow! Today in spite of still being snotty and harbouring a latent cough from the reluctant-to-leave-me head cold I have had for three weeks, I ran better than I have in ages. I stated going with the intent ‘let’s just try and get to last week’s marker’ but I got there in reasonable time and on eager legs so I just kept going and going. I managed to run out for 4.18 miles before deciding to turn around and go back, in fact I would have kept going but the dammed app stopped working (again) and it had the effect of draining my enthusiasm with it. Had it not stopped I genuinely think I would have just kept on going. Never the less having got to 4+ miles I evaluated how I had got there and realised that although I had had stretches where I walked, for the most part I had run more consistently and this realisation pleased me greatly. It is my stated aim to improve the duration of the run part and work to eliminate the walking parts bit by bit. So at 4.18 miles and peeved with the app I turned and began the return journey. I called at the cemetery and popped to see my family - it would be my mum’s 91^st birthday this week, I so miss the old bugger, do you know I always believed she would live for ever; I used to joke that we would have to take her out and shoot her at 110! But that was not to be, love ya mum and miss you as much today as the day you left us xxx.

Whilst lying in bed at 5am this morning thinking should I get up and go now or snooze until 6.30am when I had intended to get up? It dawned on me that I was awake at 5am waiting to get up and go for a run on a spring Saturday morning!!!! Where had that come from? What was it that ensured I now regularly awoke before the alarm went off? I am the kind of person who likes my bed, in fact I love my bed I am a good sleeper, I very, very, very rarely sleep badly I can fall asleep anywhere if I feel I need to doze I just curl up and shut my eyes and job done. Yet, ever since starting my training I am frequently awake and ready to go. So what is it that makes me wake up? I thought about it and thought about it and then as I pounded the Headingley streets I found myself thinking about my Raison D’etre’s speech at our wedding. Now he will always harp on about the fact that I interrupted him and pre-empted his joke. I always maintain I just improved it. None the less interrupt it I did just as he was commenting on my single minded (or some would say bloody minded) determination to get things done I pointed out it is ‘Yorkshire Grit’ just before he was about to make the Yorkshire Grit joke. So I thought about it and I wondered what it is that is driving me, above the determination to run for him and other sufferers of MD there has to be something else that is making me do it. Is it because of my Yorkshire Grit that I am driven?

Of course being from Yorkshire does give me an advantage. I consider myself truly blessed to have been born and brought up in 'God's own county'. However being from Yorkshire not only gives me access to that well known Yorkshire attribute of single minded stubbornness, I wish to state here quite categorically though that the other Yorkshire attribute of carefulness with the cash does not, never has and I doubt that it ever will apply to me just ask my Raison D’etre.

So is it Yorkshire Grit alone that drives me? Confession time here folk I have always had a character that verges on the moderately just slightly crazy side of OCD. I get obsessions about things to do (yes I actually do write ‘jobs to do’ lists) or start crazes or start collections - I have the Beany Babies to prove it – I sub-divide and alphabeticalise my CDs, the books on my shelves are in author order, my clothes are hung in colour groups, etc. etc. I realise that I have a compulsive nature and that that, along with my love for my man are what keep waking me at unearthly hours of the morning. If I am honest I am enjoying it I like the solitude of the early morning  run, I like the time alone with my thoughts, I like waving a cheery hello to the other runners especially the regular ones who I think now recognise me; actually in my bright orange Up and Running jacket you cannot fail to recognise me! So thanks to my determination I know I will keep going. I am grateful to all of you who take time out of your day to read my ramblings as your support is also giving me encouragement. Please feel free to comment!!!

Of course, as usual I reiterate my point that I am doing this for my Raison D’etre and to this end I add my usual postscript to this entry. If you want to read about the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystophy.org  and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my ‘Just Giving’ account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.

Thank you for your support.

A little bit about me

Saturday 14^th April

Distance: 3.01 mile
Time: 38:50 min
Avg Speed: 4:65 mph                            
Avg Pace: 12:54min/mile
Calories Burned: 408

Back home now from the glories of North Wales, I was up at 6.20am and out of the house by 6.45am. From the start I was sluggish and just could not get going. My legs were leaden and my runny nose still troubling me, so I found myself really struggling. I managed to run out as far as West Park and then sat on a bollard for a while pondering whether to go on and if so how far. In the end I decided to turn round and go home, I simply did not have either the energy or the inclination.

What I write in my blog often come to me as I saunter through the streets of Headingley, regular readers of this blog will know that I have taken inspiration from any number of things from the  birds of nature to the people or places I pass. You will also know that ultimately my incentive is my Raison D’etre. However, today writing is also hard as I truly am lacking in all motivation or inspiration. So as a consequence I have decided to tell you a little more about me. You already know about my Raison D’etre, yet all you know about me is that I am fat, unfit and fifty. Those three alliterative words do kind of sum me up.. to a point but they do not give you the whole picture.

Yes I am fat, not to the point of obesity, and not to the point of having it being a huge concern. I am over weight, or as I prefer to say ‘under tall’ if I was only a few inches taller, then I would not be overweight! I keep an eye on the scales and try to keep within a sensible range, a battle that is some days harder than others.

Although I refer to myself as unfit if I was asked honestly I would probably actually admit to being quite fit. It is only recently (last August to be truthful) that I finally passed my driving test. Prior to this I was happy to walk everywhere or nip on and off busses. I had never had the need to drive so I would walk at least 20 minutes every day, and I now realise that this has kept me fit for the last 50 years. I enjoy swimming, once in the pool, often getting there is a challenge! I am not a good swimmer but through determination and a bloody minded nature I have got better at that. I was always one of those annoying girls at school who was in the hockey team, the rounders team and the athletic squad. I was too short for netball and not flexible enough for gymnastics, however I can still stand on my head do a forward roll and a moderate cartwheel which I will show off to the children I teach… primary age school children are easily impressed! I have always enjoyed sports but was never enthused by the cross country at school I often cheated and cut through the woods, had a little sit down for a while and then sauntered back to school. One memorable PE day found me and my best friends deciding that today we would actually do the cross country properly and not take our usual short cuts, consequently we arrived back at school in a good time finishing in the first 10. Only for our teachers to accuse us of cheating and sending us to the showers! Needless to say we never competed fairly again. So the unfit claim is probably not quite true. I also keep fit through gardening, which I approach as a sport rather than a pass time. I am not hyperactive but I am active, I can often be found dancing freakishly around the house or deciding to move furniture or decorating. In short I am energetic and I love life.

I am of course 50 that one is unavoidable but I don’t like it because in my head and in my heart I am still 23. The aging process is not something I have signed up to willingly. To summarise I go not gladly into that dark night. So all this exercise and training will assist me in my denial of age and reluctance to give in.

I am a very passionate person who cares deeply for my causes, I love without question. I do not like confrontation but I am quite ballsy and not afraid to put my point forward. My family and friends are very important to me and I will do anything for them, I am blessed with a large collection of both whose presence in my life enrich it greatly. Their support through this has been so encouraging and hopefully I will not let them down.

Of course, as usual I reiterate my point that I am doing this for my Raison D’etre and to this end I add my usual postscript to this entry. If you want to read about the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystophy.org  and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my ‘Just Giving’ account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.

Thank you for your support.

Rain, Rainbows and Runny Noses

Monday 2nd April

Distance: 1.20 mile
Time: 0:13:47 min
Avg Speed: 5.22 mph                            
Avg Pace: 11:29min/mile
Calories Burned: 162

Just out for a quick one round the block this morning and realised that I probably wasn’t feeling very well. Managed my mid-week route it was ok on my legs but I was wheezy in the chest and breathing proved difficult. Think I may be coming down with something. Don’t really have the energy to write much……

Tuesday 10th April 

Distance: 5.60 mile (actual)
Time: 1:02:09: min (approx.)
Avg Speed: 4.49 mph (approx.)                    
Avg Pace: 13:34 min/mile (approx.)
Calories Burned: 619

As stated in my brief entry for last week when I suspected I was feeling ill, in what may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, proved true and for the last week I have been waylaid with a full blown head cold. I spent two days in bed and am still now troubled by a cough and a runny nose. However I felt well enough to get up at 6.12am and go out for a run today. What needs to be said here though is that I am not at home. It being Easter, myself and my Raison d’etre are visiting his parents on the beautiful island of Anglesey, North Wales. So today instead of my normal route I found myself running alongside the Menai Straits from the village of LLangoed to the town of Beaumaris.
With the Snowdonia mountain range in the far distance of my vista it was without doubt the most glorious way to start a day and by far my most scenic run to date. Unfortunately my Endomondo tracker app managed to switch off twice en route even though the GPS was good, so consequently I have had to estimate all my stats. The only one I know is correct is the mileage as we drove the route later in the day and was able to measure my run.

 I had no sooner left the house, as the village clock struck 6.30am and it started to rain. Thankfully it did not last long and in its wake as I rounded a corner on the very winding road, I was greeted by a rainbow. I tried to get a photo but sadly it faded before I could sort myself out. Now dear reader I am most definitely in the Judy Garland camp when it comes to rainbows. I love them and they hold many of my wishes so I felt even more invigorated in my endeavours. Running on with rainbows above me and picture postcard views all around was all the inspiration I needed.

I had decided to stick to the road route rather than diverting up along any of the many, many lanes and side roads that pepper the island, where I risked the potential to get myself lost or at the very least run around in circles. It has just occurred to me that if I had got lost I could have called out the RAF rescue helicopter but Prince William is away from his Anglesey base at the moment so it would have been a little pointless.

In spite of my wanting to run, my running in an inspirational setting and reasonable conditions I did find my legs a little sluggish and my breathing was not good, made all the more difficult by frequent stops to blow my somewhat snotty nose. Having been ill and not having the energy, inclination or strength to run for over a week I was not expecting this to be an easy run. I was not fast. I could not maintain a long run for more than ¾ of a mile and my times were long and leisurely. All that said I did enjoy my jaunt along the rugged Welsh coast and I am looking forward to my next visit there when I will hopefully be in full health and I will repeat the route and see if I can improve my stats.

When all is said and done I only had a cold. Was it annoying? Yes. Was it uncomfortable? Yes. Did it slow me down? Yes. Did I feel wretched? Yes. Will it go away? Yes. Will I recover? Yes. Will I get back to full strength? I will and I will get stronger the more I train. I will get faster the more I train. I will build up my endurance the more I train. My Raison d’etre was watching TV tonight and he saw an advert with someone bowling on it, ‘I’d like to go bowling again’ he said wistfully. ‘Well we will’ replied I. ‘No we won’t, I would just fall over, I could not do it again.’ My heart lilted.

When we have full health we take it for granted so for my love I keep on running and with the support of you my friends, family and blog readers I will raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

If you want to read about the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystophy.org  and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my ‘Just Giving’ account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.

Thank you for your support.