An unexpected find

Despite the walking ban I snuck out for a little stroll with Ny this evening. On one of our previous walks we had come across a mass of wild raspberry bushes so we decided to head back there and check on progress. We were mildly disappointed when we arrived because not only were the first ones we came to completely unripe but nettles had grown up to chest height all around them. That's ok though we weren't planning on picking today, only assessing what stage they were at.

Further up the hill however we got lucky, there were little red jewels amongst a sea of nettles. I had a carrier bag with me so we picked a few that were close to the edge. By that point though we were in the zone and we decided to try and stamp down the nettles and reach the next bush, then the next bush, deeper and deeper in to the nettles we waded, gathering more and more berries. Now all this would have been fine if we'd gone out prepared for picking: heavy jeans, long sleeves and gloves. But no, we'd gone out prepared for a walk in the sunshine: cropped trousers and bare arms.

Thankfully the antihistamines for my hayfever have provided a slight relief and instead of the huge painful nettle rash I merely have a tingling sensation. It paid off though, there is now a pound and a half of rasps in the freezer waiting to be turned in to wine.

All in all I did about 4 miles, nice gentle pace. Slight niggle in the foot at the start but it soon went/was forgotten about.

Doing something right

I get put on an exercise ban and I start losing weight. It just doesn't seem right.

I started keeping a food diary. I've been meaning to start one for ages so that I could track down when I get poisoned by my food intolerances but never could get in to the swing of it. This time, armed with my determination to reach my goals and the knowledge that it is out in public and if I fail, people will know, I am sticking to it. It's amazing how much it helps, knowing that if you eat something it has to be noted really makes you think twice before reaching for a little snack, especially when I generally snack from boredom. When I do need a snack the high sugar dates and starchy toast has been swapped out for juicy berries, fruit or oatcakes. I'm also attempting to drink more white and green tea as these don't need milk and I do get through vast quantities of the stuff each week.

So, what have I achieved this week...

Starting weight: 10st 8 1/4 lbs (67.39kg)
Today's weight: 10st 5lbs (65.91kg)
Weight lost: 3 1/4 lbs (1.48kg)

I don't expect to lose much, if any next week. There's quite a few meals out planned as my parents are visiting and I've got nights out with friends too. However, as long as I remain the same and don't put any back on, I will be happy.

2 miles of (very slow) freedom

I've had severe cabin fever whilst I've not been able to get out to walk. I study from home and live in a top floor flat. As stairs have been painful I haven't really wanted to go out unless it was necessary. It has also completely zapped my motivation, leaving me with a messy house and not much studying done.

Today my friend Hannah came to visit. She lives away now so it's always nice to see her. When Ny finished work we took a gentle stroll down the canal and back with her. Hannah can't walk as fast as us so it was good to be forced to walk slowly (a lot harder than you'd imagine) but it was so fantastic to be out and walking again. Yes it was only two miles, yes it was a stroll, not even a walk let alone a powerwalk but it was outside in the fresh air and sunshine and it was good!

Going to aim to take a stroll each day. Partly to keep me sane and partly just to give my feet a bit of gentle exercise so they don't get worse when I do start walking properly again.

Bad news

Today I visited the podiatrist. I decided to cut out the middle man and see one privately. Yes it cost me money but if I'd gone to the doctors (which would have taken over a week to get an appointment) they would have then had to refer me to an NHS podiatrist and god knows how long the waiting list would have been then! This way, I've been seen and know what my problems are.

Thankfully (after a quick trip to the walking wounded (aka minor injuries) clinic) I don't have a stress fracture as the podiatrist suspected I might. However, I do have inflammation and strain in the tendons in my feet and ankle and shin splints. Apparently this is caused by my unusally high arches and extreme pronation of my feet caused by my excessive hypermobility of my joints.

The long and short of it is it's being treated like any other soft tissue injury with R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and I'm not allowed to do any training until it's all healed. They've given my some orthotic insoles to wear which should help keep my feet in the right position and provide some support to my arch but I need to break my feet in to them as it's painful to have my feet in the correct position when my muscles aren't used to it.

On the plus side of this all though, as well as relieving the tendonitis and shin splints it should also help me with the reccurant knee pain that has troubled me since I was young.

Maybe in time I'll see if there's anything that can help keep my poor little deformed toes in the correct position so I don't continually bruise and lose the toe nails.

Being Brave

Right, if I'm going to keep any track of my weight loss I need to know where I was beginning. If I write it down on a peice of paper, I will most certainly recycle it by mistake and my memory just isn't that good. So, here goes...

weight: 10st 8 1/4 lb (or 67.39kg)
waist: 83cm
hips: 96cm

I've also included a waist and hip measurement because if there is any truth to muscle being heavier than fat, I may be "losing weight" visually, without losing weight on the scales.

I would ideally like to be about 9st 8lb by my target date but I will be happy if I'm 10st.

November 29th 2011

That is my new goal. But goal for what...

Over the last couple of years I have put on weight. I managed to lose enough to fit in to a gorgeous bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding in October 2009 but since then, I've put it back on again. I'm not fat by any means, I'm just not comfortable in my own skin. I have a wardrobe full of clothes that don't fit me and it saddens me.

I had hoped the marathon training would have helped me lose weight, every other time I've done one, the weight has just dropped off but for some reason, this time, it just didn't budge.

I have packed up all the clothes that don't fit me and they are being put away until November 29th. In that time, I will try to lose the weight through portion control, healthy eating and continuing my walking and swimming. If when I come to unpack the bag, the clothes don't fit me they will be given away. If I can't lose the weight by then I continue my healthy lifestyle but accept the fact that I may never again be the size I was when I was 21, I will buy new clothes and learn to love my new shape.

So why 29th November, well I chose November because it gives me a good few months but is before any festive weight gain that may occur. 29th? Well, I put numbers in a bowl and pulled one at random!

I guess to track my weight loss (hopefully) I should post up my weight so I know where I was starting from. Maybe I'll be brave tomorrow?

Thoughts of the future

I've been put on a walking ban until my podiatrist appointment as a 1.5 mile round trip to the post office put my arches back in to agony. As I haven't been able to get out and walk it has given me time to sit and think.

This year (other than the arch pain) I really felt like I'd nailed this doing a marathon thing. I trained hard, I kept hydrated, I crossed the finish line and the next day I felt pretty damn good!

I really want to do another marathon next year but I just know I can't tap my friends and family for sponsorship two years in a row. This has led me to think maybe I will do a marathon on the sly. I could do the London Moonwalk, stump up the sponsorship myself, just not mention to people I'm doing it. I'd get to experience a marathon in a city where it's just another annoyance to the locals, see how I fair when people aren't coming out of thier houses at 3am to cheer you on. It's a month before the Edinburgh one so I could still turn up and volunteer at the Edinburgh Moonwalk with friends. I've registered my interest for it and maybe my walking partner will be up for it too as she's never done a marathon before.

First steps

I had planned on getting out for a gentle walk on Wednesday to see how my body was coping post-marathon. Unfortunatley constraints of real life and university deadlines got in the way. Today however I was forced to do the 1.5 mile round trip to the post office. By a few hundred metres in I realised that my foot was most definitely not happy!

Hopefully will be able to see a podiatrist early next week. Part of me thinks I could go see the Doctor but then I have little faith in the NHS these days and whole-heartedly expect I would get sent away with "it's strained, rest it". I know it's strained, I want to know how to prevent it from happening again!

Rest and Recovery

After finally catching up on my missed sleep I'm actually feeling really good today. My arch hurts but other than that I just have some tightness in my shins. I'm so pleased not to be suffering too much, clearly all the training paid off.

Whilst I might not be doing another marathon for a year or two I plan on keeping up with my training to maintain or improve on my current level of fitness so I'll keep the blog going to chart my progress.

We did it!

I managed to stay up until 5am on Saturday in an attempt to get myself nocturnal. My original plan was to sleep until about 1/2pm but by 10:30am the people staying with me had made so much noise that I gave up on sleep and just got up. They got chucked out of the house at 1pm so I could have an afternoon nap but by then my mind was in marathon mode and sleep just wouldn’t happen. So instead I filled my afternoon with relaxation and a little apprehension.

I got very nervous beforehand and in the taxi with the girls but as soon as we were in to the Big Pink Tent the nerves just melted away and I remembered why I was doing this. Despite having the same estimated finish time as previous years, we’d been put in to the second wave of starters so we had to endure two rounds of the warm up before heading to the start line.

We crossed the start line at about 11:50am and we were off…

As we’d been put in a slower start group we spent the first several miles at an awkward pace having to continually nip through gaps and overtake people. We soon found our stride though and began to enjoy it. The rain had stopped before we started and the cloud cover provided some warmth and light to the evening so the early hours when there was the possibility of it being very cold and very dark were actually pleasant. The usual drunks were out in the centre of town, getting in the way but cheering people on. However, it felt like there were less people out than previous years but I guess the weather earlier on might have put them off. To keep ourselves happy we decided to cheer on the people cheering us on from houses and roadsides along the route, thanking policemen, volunteers and spectators.

After last time’s terrible problems with letting myself get dehydrated I decided that I would make myself have some water at every mile marker. That way, even if I forgot to drink the rest of the time, I was getting some hydration. I was even good and picked up two bottles of water at various points to make myself drink them.

They put all the big hills at the start of the route. Just a mile in, we reached the first one and from there on in my arch complained, every step felt like I was walking on razor blades. It was worst on the hills but still niggled away on the flat. We decided that we weren’t doing a marathon, we were just walking to the pub so we picked pubs along the route as our goals rather than thinking about how many miles we’d done. Arthur’s seat seemed easier than other years, I don’t know if this was due to the extra light from cloud cover or just that I’d done it so many times during training walks. Our friend was a volunteer team leader on the night so we made him smile (or hugely embarrassed him, I’m not sure which) as we passed his section.

At the 10 mile marker we stopped for a toilet break which gave us a good chance to refuel with something to eat, stretch out our legs and reply to the texts of encouragement we’d been receiving. At 10.5 miles we lost the half mooners as they turned to head back to the finish line. In previous years, this has been a real down moment, they will all soon be home yet we still have hours to go. This time it really didn’t bother me, I had no desire to be on my way home.

I was so thankful that we’d done the big seafront section of the route for our training walk. It reminded us that we could do it and also gave us things to chat about and have a giggle about to keep us going. By this point it was getting hard. In the middle of the day, walking 13 miles really isn’t that difficult but no matter how much training you do and how nocturnal you become, nothing will prepare your body for walking in the darkness, when it thinks it should be sleeping! We had some motivation to keep going though, at mile 15 our friends Ny & Joe were waiting for us with hot chocolate and pain killers so we powered on. As we neared, there were thoughts of whether stopping would make things worse but one sip of that sugary sweet hot chocolate and we knew we’d made the right decision. We were energised and ready to go again.

From mile 13 onwards we had been counting down the miles until the end, that way, instead of having done 16 miles, we were only ten miles from the finish! It kept us motivated and made the walk seem far more doable.

Between miles 17 and 18 I was really struggling, my arch was unbearable, I was tired and finding it really hard to hold things together. I had a little cry and put my headphones in to distract me from my feet and within a mile I’d pulled myself together and was positive again. I honestly believe that to finish a marathon you need to really believe in the cause that you’re doing it for. I would happily have given up at that point if making it across the finish line didn’t mean so much to me.

As we hit Portobello promenade the sun was rising over the sea and it looked really beautiful. A bit of positive thinking spurred us on, having hit the wall earlier made for a far easier stretch along this route than the previous two years and getting to turn back to town just after the baths was a happy moment when our training walk had taken us all the way to the end of the promenade.

The final miles were tough but other than the pain in my arches, I felt nowhere near as bad as I had the previous years. That was until they made us go up Abbeyhill at 23 miles. My foot was on fire, but I gritted my teeth and powered on up with “we’re just going to the Regent” in my mind. I know Edinburgh is full of hills but that was cruel and unusual punishment. I wonder if the person who planned the route has ever been to Edinburgh?

The final miles seemed to take forever but at the same time, passed in an instant. As we walked along by the Botanical Gardens we started to see people who had finished. I’ve done two marathons before yet had completely forgotten that at the end of it I’d get a medal!

For the first time we knew that we were going to have friends waiting at the finish line for us so as we entered the park and passed the 26 mile marker we were on the look-out for them. There was a moment’s pause so I could grab a photo of the finish line, a glance at the clock and then confusion as to how we’d lost half an hour of time in the last mile.

We stumbled across the finish line, hand in hand, tired, sore and emotional but so, so proud of what we had achieved. Turning round we realised that the clock on the finish line was half an hour fast and we’d actually finished at 7:11am! We’d made fantastic time! After gathering our bags we headed in to the park to meet friends. A sit on our space blankets and a sip of chai later and things seemed so much better. There was pain but there was also so much happiness.

We were given lifts up to town where we went for tea at Costas until the Chocolate Tree opened. More friends joined us in the chocolate tree and we ate ice cream, drank tea and generally revelled in how awesome we were! It was then off home to bathe and sleep and generally recover before heading out for drinks in the pub as we’d been walking through Kat’s birthday.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me in this, through donations (I’ve now raised £470), well wishes, reading my blog, joining me on walks, meeting me at the end or driving me places. I truly could not have done this without you all!

Marathons and motivation

Tomorrow night I am taking part in the Edinburgh Moonwalk. It’s a marathon, but no ordinary marathon. It begins at midnight and we will be powerwalking through the night until breakfast time. Not only that, we’ll be doing it in decorated bras, all 10,000 of us, to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research and care.

It sounds crazy, and as such I wanted to tell you a little about my motivation and what drives me to put my body through such torment.

I have been fundraising for cancer charities since 2005 and 2006 when I did my first 5K runs for Cancer Research UK. At the time, this felt like a really big thing to be doing. I raised my sponsorship, I ran jogged my little heart out and I gave it my all. I probably would have been happy continuing like this but in August 2006 I got a call that would change my life. My mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Words cannot describe the turmoil of emotions that I felt at that point.

Seven months later, after 3 operations and an intensive course of radiotherapy they decided all the cancer was gone. After this though, a 5K run just didn’t seem enough, I wanted to do more, I wanted to do everything I could to help others in her situation. That autumn I saw an advert for a charity event that was happening in Edinburgh and without a thought I signed up.

In June 2007 and I participated in my first marathon as part of the Edinburgh Moonwalk. I powerwalked 26.2 miles through the night in a decorated bra to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research and care. It was a real challenge. I was walking on my own and the final ten miles were pure hell. My muscles burnt, my feet ached, I was exhausted and I honestly didn’t feel I could go on, I had hit the wall! Despite this, I knew I needed to continue. I had no choice, deep in my heart I knew that I had to get to the finish, I had to make it to the end for my mum and all those whose lives had been affected by breast cancer.

At around 7:20am I stumbled across the finish line, tears streaming down my face, relieved to have made it and unbelievably proud.

Two years later in 2009 I signed myself up for it again but this time I had two friends to walk with me and keep me going. Again it was a challenge, I knew the route, I knew where I’d struggled previously, worst still, I knew completely what I’d let myself in for. The worst part was the final few miles. In attempting to limit toilet stops I had let myself become seriously dehydrated and with every step I felt I was about to be sick. But again, I knew I had no option but to continue until the end.

Some would have thought that two marathons would have been punishment enough. But no, another two years on and I’m doing it all again. I think I’ve trained more this time and I’ve learnt from my previous mistakes but no matter how hard you train, it doesn’t prepare your body for exercising when you should be sleeping.

I’m now a mere £13 away from my fundraising target of £300. My bags are sorted and I’m munching on carbs ready for the night ahead tomorrow. My mum was one of the lucky ones. Her cancer was caught early with a routine mammogram, it was treated and she is now approaching 5 years cancer free. She is an amazing lady, she is my inspiration. I admire her strength, courage and determination in life and as always, I'm doing it for her!

Eeeep!

I've just realised that it being 3am means it's now the day before. This scares me slightly!

I still need to stitch the ears to my bra-monster and the claws to the arm warmers (you'll see pictures tomorrow). There will be a trip to Real Foods to pick up so carb loaded snacks for the night. The duck pasta sauce (aka awesome sauce) needs cooked. Safety pins for walker number need sorted and I need to check I have all my clothes and bags packed! Most of all though, I need to not worry so that I can get good quality sleep.

In other news: The other Kat and I went to the fish foot spa to get the dead skin nibbled off our feet!

Night Owl

It's 3am. No normal person is up at this time of day. Are you up at this time of day? No! I must be insane. I'm currently attempting to switch myself to a nocturnal lifestyle ready for walking through the night in to Sunday morning. To be honest, my body's not coping very well and I'm really not feeling good. I still have an hour to go before I can even contemplate bed.

However, I know that on the night, this adaption will help. If I'm tired at 3/4am that's far better than being tired at 10/11pm before we've even started walking.

Nerves

It's around this point before a race that I start to get a bit nervous. I know it's silly little things that normally I wouldn't be concerned by. I've done it before and I know it's possible but there are still all the "what ifs"...

What if:
I don't sleep well enough and am too tired?
I get dehydrated?
my injuries play up?
I collapse?
I hit the wall and feel I can't go on?
my feet hurt too much?
it rains?
my bra rubs or my boobs pop out?
it gets too cold?
my walking friends have something go wrong?

So many what ifs but I know that by having these thoughts now I can overcome them. I can have a little worry, get it out of my system and know that on the night I will do my absolute best. I know that no matter what happens on the night, even if all those what ifs occur, I will be crossing that finish line. This cause is so close to my heart that I've come too far to not complete it.

There again, it wouldn't be a challenge if I wasn't a little nervous!

Now to practise my mantra "I will make it to the finish, I will make it to the finish"

Arch Nemesis

Today I met Ny and we got the bus out to Balerno with the aim of walking from the top end of the Water of Leith walkway. Part way along the walk my arch was really burning. We took the route slow and steady with plenty of stops but it didn't really help ease the pain. We got off the route at Slateford and headed home along the canal.

I know bad days are going to happen but this close to marathon night, it does worry me slightly how much pain I'm in. I've been refusing to take painkillers for it whilst walking so I can monitor it but now I'm back home, feet up and an anti-inflamitory taken to ease it and prevent me from favouring the other foot and causing problems there.

After the marathon I'm going to spend some money and see a podiatrist about my feet but I'm too scared to go before the marathon incase they tell me not to do it!

Total distance: 8 miles
Average speed: 3.09 mph
Average moving speed: 4.22 mph

Discovering my city

I have always appreciated the beauty of Edinburgh, the historic buildings, the shoreline, the imposing castle, the people. My training walks however have shown me a whole new side of Edinburgh, its hills, its rivers, the nature and the beauty, all of it within the city, within a walk of my house.

Today we decided to explore the Water of Leith. We headed down the canal to slateford and dropped on to the level of the river. I've only ever done this stretch of canal walking downstream so we weren't exactly sure where the upstream entrance was. We took a path, we found trees and water but it wasn't the usual path. Instead we found ourselves wandering past Kates Mill and the Dell to Collinton village. Beautiful area.

The GPS tracker lost signal deep in the trees but from the tracking on the way back we probably did between 12 and 13 miles in total. We're clearly getting fitter as we kept a good pace yet didn't really feel we were pushing ourselves and were able to keep a conversation going (except on the uphill parts but that's to be expected).

Fundraising

So the whole point of me doing all this training, and indeed walking for 7 hours through the night with my bra on show, is to raise money for Walk the Walk. Walk the Walk are a grant making charity who provide funding to hospitals, care groups etc to help improve the care and treatment of those suffering from breast cancer.

My original target amount was £500, or €569 and US$817 for my German and American visitors (Hello! *waves* Your prescence has been noted and much appreciated). It didn't seem an unreasonable amount at the time. I've raised over that my previous two marathons and I even got close to that for a 5K run. Sadly this year it seems people just aren't willing to part with their money. This saddens me as the cause is very close to my heart.

To feel a little better about this I dropped my target to £262, I figured £10 (€11.37 / $16.35) per mile wasn't an unreasonable amount to be able to raise.

This morning I have nearly reached my target, I am just £17 (€19.33 / $27.79) away from my new goal. This makes me very happy indeed!

So I ask you, dear friend, family member, random stranger from the other side of the world... do you want to sponsor me?

Insomnia

In the words of faithless "I can't get no sleep"

I wouldn't mind if it was next week. Next week I'm aiming to turn semi-nocturnal in the hope of easing my body in to the shock of not only pulling an all nighter but of being active that entire time. However tonight I need to be asleep, and I'm not.

Not sure whether our final long walk will go ahead tomorrow. One of the marathon girls is having joint problems so has decided to pass on it, my foot's playing up and now I'll be moody from sleep deprivation too. If however the other girl I'm walking with wants to walk, I'll probably force myself out but at a gentler pace, stopping as soon as the foot gives me bother.