Saturday
7thMay
Distance: 1:95miles
Time: 29:40 Avg Speed:3.94mph Avg Pace 15.14min/mile
Calories
Burned 334
Saturday
23rd April
Distance: 1:44miles
Time: 22:01 Avg Speed:3.93mph Avg Pace 15.15min/mile
Calories
Burned 248
Monday
4th April
Distance: 1:29miles
Time: 20:51 Avg Speed:3.71mph Avg Pace 16.09min/mile
Calories
Burned 213
Well
folks here we go again. After I completed the Great North Run 4 years ago I did
not say ‘Never again.’ I suppose in the deep, dark competitive regions of my
soul I think I always knew I would have another bash at it. Last time I was
only 1min16secs over 3 hours and that rankled. Had I not queued for so long at
the loo and just gone in the bushes like everyone, else or had I not lingered
for quite so long behind, the lycra clad butt, of the very fit guy dressed as Slash
pushing a wheelchair or had I not stopped to chat along the way then I could
have done it, THEN! However it is now four years later, I am four years fatter
and four years ‘unfitterer’ (as the KS1 Kids would say) and most telling of all
I am four years older. The GNR this year will be the week before my 55th
birthday and to be perfectly honest here, I am truly out of shape at the
moment. Whereas in 2012 I was out pounding the roads from January 1st
this time I have been tardy. You see in my head, a place no one should venture,
I know I can do it, I know what is involved, I know that at the very least I could
power walk it round the hilly precipices of the North East and get a reasonable
time. Yet I also know I don’t just want to do that. I want to do the best I can
and if possible I want to beat my own time. Anyone who has ever played any competitive
game with me or even a game of snap will know that I am competitive, I like to
win or at least go down singing, giving up is not in my psyche neither is
letting people down.
Ah
yes letting people down! That leads me very nicely onto my motivation. It is as
it has been and as it always will be one thing, one reason, one person that
motivates me. Yes you’ve guessed it my Raison d’etre, my love, my life, my Moon
and Stars, for him I will, as last time, do it. To that end I have now quite
late in the year, finally got my ass in gear and been out pounding the
pavements. I have done three short ‘runs’ so far and as of today I have decided
that it is time to resurrect this blog to serve as a record, prompt, incentive
to myself to keep going. I will again be running for the Muscular Dystrophy
Campaign or Muscular Dystrophy UK as it now called, www.musculardystrophyuk.org who
as you know are the charity working to support patients, campaign for change,
fund research and raise awareness of this condition which affects my Raison d’etre.
This from my blog of 4 years ago explains the charity;
MD is a cruel disease that afflicts my Moon and Stars, for him it is a slow progressive degeneration of the muscles in his legs. He is slowly being robbed of the ability to walk and although to all intents and purposes he looks healthy and still manages to maintain a relatively normal lifestyle he does have great difficulty walking and can fall at any given moment without warning or reason. He has adapted to this very well and has developed a nifty way of rolling as although he cannot prevent the fall once it begins, he does tend to do it in slow motion thus allowing him to deploy his tried and tested fall/roll/catch system.
The MD campaign are a small charity but charged with a huge task as there are over 40 different types of the disease. Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited disorders that involve muscle weakness and loss of muscle tissue, which get worse over time and as an inherited conditions, they are passed down through families. They may occur in childhood or adulthood. There are many different types of muscular dystrophy. They include:
·
Emery-Dreifuss muscular
dystrophy
·
Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy
·
Myotonic dystrophy
The
type that we are dealing personally with is Becker
muscular dystrophy and although it is an inherited condition in most cases,
ours is not. The doctors say that my Raison d’etre has a mutated gene that has
caused the condition. So I often refer to him as my middle-aged mutant ninja. I
laugh at him a lot but I don’t ever make light of his condition as I know that
because of it our future together may be limited. It will certainly be
restricted, but you see folks, I adore the man so if I have to carry him on my
back I will but for now I will just get up put on my trainers and go for runs -
when I don’t want to, when it hurts, when the dammed GPS doesn’t work - because
I can as my legs work and although they are old and short and reluctant they
are still in working order.
So
how am I doing? How was my run today? Ok and not too bad would be my responses
to those questions. Now that my ass is geared up and my mind set is awakened I actually
don’t feel bad. I dragged my sorry old self out of bed at just gone 6am and got
out for a meander. I had already decided the route I would take.
On my two previous runs I had simply pootled down to Hyde Park corner and shuffled back along Victoria Road. That is a quick ‘round the block’ kind of run so I decided to go a little more scenic today and took myself up North Grange Road and down by The Ridge across North Lane up Shaw Lane and back along Headingley Lane.
So
it was with an increasing belief that I completed a short, but emotionally big,
run that brought me home and straight to the computer to restart this blog. I hope
you will journey again with me and if you can spare a bob or two then please go
to my just giving page https://www.justgiving.com/Janet-Lewis3
and pledge what ever you can in support of my endeavours and this most
worthwhile of charities.
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