Seville...the good, the bad and the painful
On Sunday 25th February 2018, I ticked off one of the most exciting things on my bucket list. An overseas marathon. It was a glorious course, possibly the most beautiful route I have ever ran. However, my time wasn't what I hoped - I have run a marathon before in 4 hours 21 minutes, Seville was 5 hours 8 minutes. My hamstring was in agony by the time I ran the lap around the La Cartuja Stadium, my toe was severely blistered, my other leg was aching and only one of my toenails had turned black. But for all the pain, the pride I felt crossing the finish line was unbelievable. I had done something I never thought I could do. Especially at mile 10 when I genuinely thought I wouldn't be able to walk for the rest of the day!
From my running experiences, I have learned that running is more of a mind game as opposed to a physical game. Anyone can do a marathon; it's well documented that Oprah Winfrey completed her first marathon in under 4 hours. My mentality throughout my training was, if Oprah Winfrey can do it, then so can I! My training started at the end of October and honestly, with the previous two months events, running was to become my escapism until Christmas. I committed fully to it - even completing a half marathon in the middle of November just because my training plan required me to run 13 miles that week. I was really on top of it & I was smashing my times, I managed a 16 mile run in 2 hours 45 minutes. I was confident and on occasions I thought I've only got a few more weeks left, maybe I will skip that Thursday night tempo run, I'm training really well and don't need to do every workout, rest is just as good!
But that is when the downhill spiral started. And before I knew it, Christmas was upon us. Megan was at the age where she "got" Christmas for the first time so my energies went into making sure she had the best Christmas ever. I think this helped to distract me thinking too much about my first Christmas without Dad. And I simply couldn't get my head back into the game. My bad days were outweighing my good. My best friend's birthday was at the end of January and I let my hair down and got the notion in my head, I need to live my life, you're never sure what's round the next corner.
And you really don't because February is when the bad & the painful hit home. We were on a high, life was slowly getting back to normal & things were good. We'd just celebrated Megan's birthday, we'd had a belated Christmas/New Year celebration in Sheffield with my stepmum and my extended family, we'd spent some time with my brother ensuring he had a good birthday. It was a text message from Dan's stepmum saying that his Dad had collapsed at home and had been rushed to hospital on Monday 12th February. Within 48 hours, we were told he'd contracted sepsis and for both of us, it was like a bad dream. We were going through exactly the same scenario as we had five months previously. Before long, we were making regular trips to Bedford Hospital critical care unit, my father in law had been placed in a medically induced coma to fight the sepsis. Twenty days later, the sepsis won and we had the heartbreaking phone call from Dan's step mum explaining that we needed to go to the hospital to see Mick, the time had come to say goodbye. I couldn't talk on the journey over to the hospital, there was a lump in my throat that I couldn't get rid of. I never got to say everything I wanted to say to Mick, same as I never got to say everything to my Dad either. History was repeating itself and although you never get over the loss of a parent, you can cope with it. I'd just started coping again before life cruelly dealt us another shit hand.
The last month has been very very difficult. But in more ways than one, it has made me more determined for life. I've started making plans for a new running challenge for me & Dan and we've booked a few trips this year to look forward to. I've enjoyed spending quality time with Megan this week, although not the best circumstances as she is recovering from chickenpox but being able to sit in the library for an hour whilst she listens to some of her favourite stories is treasured time that I adore.
As for another overseas marathon? Of course I will do another one. Paris & Rome are high on my list. Maybe not anytime soon as I am keen to improve my half marathon & 10k times. I did a 10k on Sunday in under an hour which I was really pleased with and have got a couple of half marathons to look forward to in April and May respectively.
Sorry it's another sad blog post, I promise the next one I write will be happy. I have purchased a Euro Millions lottery ticket for Friday so you never know!
From my running experiences, I have learned that running is more of a mind game as opposed to a physical game. Anyone can do a marathon; it's well documented that Oprah Winfrey completed her first marathon in under 4 hours. My mentality throughout my training was, if Oprah Winfrey can do it, then so can I! My training started at the end of October and honestly, with the previous two months events, running was to become my escapism until Christmas. I committed fully to it - even completing a half marathon in the middle of November just because my training plan required me to run 13 miles that week. I was really on top of it & I was smashing my times, I managed a 16 mile run in 2 hours 45 minutes. I was confident and on occasions I thought I've only got a few more weeks left, maybe I will skip that Thursday night tempo run, I'm training really well and don't need to do every workout, rest is just as good!
But that is when the downhill spiral started. And before I knew it, Christmas was upon us. Megan was at the age where she "got" Christmas for the first time so my energies went into making sure she had the best Christmas ever. I think this helped to distract me thinking too much about my first Christmas without Dad. And I simply couldn't get my head back into the game. My bad days were outweighing my good. My best friend's birthday was at the end of January and I let my hair down and got the notion in my head, I need to live my life, you're never sure what's round the next corner.
And you really don't because February is when the bad & the painful hit home. We were on a high, life was slowly getting back to normal & things were good. We'd just celebrated Megan's birthday, we'd had a belated Christmas/New Year celebration in Sheffield with my stepmum and my extended family, we'd spent some time with my brother ensuring he had a good birthday. It was a text message from Dan's stepmum saying that his Dad had collapsed at home and had been rushed to hospital on Monday 12th February. Within 48 hours, we were told he'd contracted sepsis and for both of us, it was like a bad dream. We were going through exactly the same scenario as we had five months previously. Before long, we were making regular trips to Bedford Hospital critical care unit, my father in law had been placed in a medically induced coma to fight the sepsis. Twenty days later, the sepsis won and we had the heartbreaking phone call from Dan's step mum explaining that we needed to go to the hospital to see Mick, the time had come to say goodbye. I couldn't talk on the journey over to the hospital, there was a lump in my throat that I couldn't get rid of. I never got to say everything I wanted to say to Mick, same as I never got to say everything to my Dad either. History was repeating itself and although you never get over the loss of a parent, you can cope with it. I'd just started coping again before life cruelly dealt us another shit hand.
The last month has been very very difficult. But in more ways than one, it has made me more determined for life. I've started making plans for a new running challenge for me & Dan and we've booked a few trips this year to look forward to. I've enjoyed spending quality time with Megan this week, although not the best circumstances as she is recovering from chickenpox but being able to sit in the library for an hour whilst she listens to some of her favourite stories is treasured time that I adore.
As for another overseas marathon? Of course I will do another one. Paris & Rome are high on my list. Maybe not anytime soon as I am keen to improve my half marathon & 10k times. I did a 10k on Sunday in under an hour which I was really pleased with and have got a couple of half marathons to look forward to in April and May respectively.
Sorry it's another sad blog post, I promise the next one I write will be happy. I have purchased a Euro Millions lottery ticket for Friday so you never know!
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