Running in the dark

The red car in front of us was so slow that you could be mistaken for thinking that it was about to pull over, but no such luck. For the last fifteen miles the driver had been driving like a little old lady, in fact he was a man in his thirties wearing sunglasses which he would raise now and then to get a better look at a hill or rock as he drove along like Mr Magoo. This would be frustrating at the best of times; unfortunately I was already running several hours late.
It is Sunday and I had woken up to the light of the sun coming through the shutters after a lovely night’s deep sleep, I reached for my watch and sat up in shock. 1130am! I was supposed to start running before 10am and I was only just awake. Quickly I dressed and got ready and Fi and I got out of the house into the car and on the road, I had planned my route the day before, I was going to run the Military road Marathon, 26.2 miles over the Wicklow Mountains from the village of Laragh to Rathfarnham in Dublin. Eventually the clown in the car in front pulled off the road and we speed on to Laragh.
On arriving at Laragh I leant over, kissed Fi and jumped out as she wished me good luck and bid me to take care. I powered up my wrist worn GPS, threw on my backpack and started away up the hill down which we had just driven, after a few minutes Fi drove past me and in to the distance, and then she was gone.
I quickly settled into the pace and ground on up the hill, to my left was a waterfall, as I passed the summit I picked up the pace. It had taken me almost an hour to do the six miles to the top of the first hill. People ask me ‘what time did you do your last marathon in?’ Running a fast time is not the point of why I’m running, running a 3:24 marathon is no use in Namibia where I have to run 128 Km in 46 degrees of heat, I need to train to be on my feet for 24 hours continuously. When running I am working on my heart rate, keeping it between 135 and 144 BPM that’s between 75-80% of my cardiac capacity, around 135BPM my body is burning fat, with very low carbohydrates in my diet I am forcing my body to used my stored energy (fat) as fuel. This meant that this morning all I had to help fuel my run was one Jordan’s cereal bar and a banana. It was working though; this morning when I weighed myself I weighed 14.12 stone.
As I ran on over hill after hill towards Sally Gap I noticed the sky behind me begin to darken with thick dark grey clouds. It wasn’t long before the rain started, the wind gusting in from my left driving the cold rain cutting into the side of my face and making it difficult to run in a straight line. I took off my sunnies and kept running. As the miles past and I got to around mile 15 the sun slowly disappeared behind a mountain and darkness fell, pulling strange shapes from normal object in shadows long and irregular and the temperature rapidly dropped further.
I ran on and cars pass me, their occupants giving me either strange looks or friendly smiles and waves. A black BMW 3 series past me four times throughout the afternoon and on the final pass it stopped ahead of me beeped its horn and the occupants waved and cheered out of the rear window before it drove off. After a while a line of cars approached me slowly from behind, the lead car slows and the driver unwinds his window. The well spoken elderly man leans out and asks ‘Would you like a lift?’ A look of real concern upon his face, I was touched and thank him but say I’m fine. He looked up at the freezing rain falling from the sky and asked if I was sure. When I reassured him he told me that I was ‘well seen’ and I thank him before he drives away. It had been a real concern that at night I would not be seen by a driver on the twisty turning roads and would be found in a ditch the next morning either dead from a fast moving car or hypothermia following an accident. With his assurance that I was ‘Well seen’ I carried on feeling slightly more confident. The light keeps fading into pitch blackness until all that I can see in the sky is the constellation the plough at the end of which the north star shining, pointing the way to home. On the ground I could just about make out the white line in the middle of the road next to me, I run close to it as I can’t see the edge of the road or in which direction it turned. Another reason is to alleviate the stress on my legs from running on a camber at the side of the road. When cars come I can see them from miles away when on top of the route, but as the road began to descend in to woods it is a little unnerving as cars approaching suddenly tear around the bends in front of me, sometimes with little warning.
Running through the pitch black pine woods the wind rushes through the trees making them roar so loudly that it sounds like a waterfall or river in flood. It takes me back to the Dublin city marathon, towards the end of the route where people lined the roads cheering and shouting encouragement it feels as if the trees themselves are cheering me onwards, the wind on my back pushing me forwards with its gentle encouragement and I feel my spirits soar as my legs find a renewed strength.
The sound of my back pack as it slides over my running jacket is a gentle rhythmic rustling and I spend a couple of miles trying to work out if it sounds more like sand or salt in a container slipping from side to side. I think of all the times in all the countries where I have looked up at the plough and it feels like an old friend to me.
I have to get used to running at night on my own in remote areas as I will most likely be running on my own at night across the desert. I spent around three hours running across the mountains in the pitch dark, through the woods and twisting lanes back to Rathfarnham. It was good practise, I learnt that focusing on my breathing works well, and so does singing which I did for a while.
Some Do’s and Don’t when running through the night,
Do watch out for cars, Do watch out for pot holes, Do wear reflective clothing (a light would also be a good idea)
And now some Don’ts; when running through the woods at night do not think about every Werewolf movie you have ever seen; this is not a good time to do mental review of ‘Dog Soldiers’ in your head. Don’t let your imagination wonder if the echo of your foot fall is actually the footfall of a person running behind you. However, if you do you’ll find that your pace will be much faster for a couple of miles.
I really enjoyed my 26.2 miles; I finished it very cold but happy and feeling strong. It takes a lot out of you running on empty, when I weighed myself that night I weighed 14.8 stones but had lost 1% of my body fat, some of the weight will be water but not all. My progress continues.

Choices

As I stood in the open doorway the cold wind blew the rain in against my face, I looked out at the dark grey sky through the rain and in exasperation invoked one word “Bugger!” I closed the front door and started to get ready for my long Sunday run of 21 miles. It was going to be harder today than in the past; for the last two weeks I had been on a very strict no carbohydrate diet and was now fully feeling the effect on my body, a lack of energy and an inability to be warm. My coach Rory had placed me on the diet when I went to see him, I need to get lean, very lean in order to run in the heat of the Namib desert. So far I had lost four Kilograms of fat in two weeks. My body is now running on empty, my training regime is stringent; for the last two weeks I have trained six days a week with weights in the gym and running, in those two weeks I have run 89.2 miles.
I was in London again, over for the weekend to surprise my old friend Sean for his birthday and so found myself the next day driving to Richmond park in the freezing rain to start my long training run for the week. I entered the giant nature reserve that was once Henry the Eighths hunting ground and as I turned up the hill I was aware of how few people were about. My car pulled up in the empty car park above the Isabella plantation and as I turned off the engine the sound of the rain began to patter against the windscreen. With a deep breath I reminded myself that no matter if it was a summers day or a day like today that by the end of it I would be soaked either way, and with that I climbed out of my car and locked the door. I put on my backpack that contained the water that I would be drinking over the next four and a half hours and gently padded away from my car in to the woods.
Theres something about running in the rain that is amazingly relaxing, as if all ones stress is being washed away and as I found my stride and pace my breathing settled in to the old familiar rhythm my lungs filling with the clear, clean air. I smiled to myself as I felt my muscles warming up even as my clothes began to soak through, I chose to do this.
After several miles there is a break in the rain, as my clothes start to steam as they are warmed by my body heat and the sun I crest the ridge of a hill to see the steam rising from the backs of some nearby deer who look up for a moment quizzically before going back to grazing on the long green rain soaked grass. The sun lifts my spirits as I run on, I love that I chose to do this and enjoy that I have the park almost to myself. Even as the rain begins to fall again gently at first I choose to smile and feel lifted again as the most vivid rainbow appears in front of me. I run on happy in the freezing rain, it is my choice to do so.
My three year old niece Lucy asked me a week ago ‘Uncle Jamile, what do you think about when you are running?’ As I ran on past the fourteen mile mark I thought about her question.
Sometimes I am thinking about how the run is going, what I am seeing in front of me and all around me, my experience of the moment. Other times when the pain kicks in and the bitter cold bites down hard through my fingers and around my head I let my mind travel and think about why I am doing this, why I have chosen to do this. At these times my mind turns to a poem, it was written by Lynn McKenna who died aged 15, its called Lynn’s Dreams, this is it:

I wish I could learn,
Like everyone else,
I wish I could swim, jump and run,

I wish different cards could have been dealt,
I wish it could be like old fun.
I wish I could grow and learn about life,

I wish I could feel well again,
I wish that there was an end to the strife,
And a new beginning instead.

But destiny’s come and its drawing me near,
And I know my two ANGELS are there,
With them I will have no reason for fear, In their warm embrace and their care.

So when I run and it hurts, when the pain in my hips is so bad that its screaming at me to stop and my fingers begin to feel like they will never thaw; I remember Lynn’s poem and remember how privileged I am to be able to run, and to feel that pain; and I remember that I have chosen to do this and I push on.

In the words of Jane, Lynn’s mother the LauraLynn Foundation is all about ‘Putting life into a child’s day, and not days into a child’s life, it’s all about choices’

"Up to the E"

The door to the big house opened and standing there was Rory, in his cold weather running gear with a warm open smile on his face. I shock his hand and said hello as he invited me into his lovely house. ‘You’re lucky, today you’ve got two Rorys’ he said by way of introduction to the other runner that would be joining us for our Marathon. Over a cup of coffee Rory gave us both a brief of what to expect in the desert, a lot of it was aimed at the Marathon des Sables ‘MdS’ that both Rory’s would be running in April; but even the parts that were only about the MdS were very interesting. We were taken through everything from shoes and gaiter to keep the sand out to the best knife for conducting self surgery with should the need arise, and a story from Rory of when he had to operate on his own foot in the middle of a race. Once we had gone through the kit and asked a lot of questions it was time for the run. I was a bit nervous, I had already decided that no mater what the pace was I would bloody well do it! I needn’t have worried though and was relieved to find that I was ok with the pace. As we left Rory’s house and started running the rain also started, lightly at first. We ran by the school where Rory’s daughter attended, it was play time and she was out in the playground. We paused so that Rory could say hello and give her a kiss, as we ran on we chatted about life and Rory talked proudly about his six children. The other Rory turned out to be a really nice guy and soon the miles were flying by, in fact when Rory asked how far we had covered I was surprised to find out that it was nine miles already! The route was wet, very wet, in some places we crossed flooded fields the rain picked up and the stiles we crossed were treacherously slippy. The majority of the course was across country, over fields and through woods, and despite the cold wet weather and the fact that I was only wearing tight running leggings, a thin long sleeve top & carrying a backpack, was soaked to the bone and covered in mud, I was loving it. It felt so good to be away from the day to day grind, no laptop, no phone calls, no worries… Fantastic. Nature all around me and great company, I really was enjoying myself. Rory has a lot of life experience and a lot of stories which he kept us entertained with, he also has a massive wealth of knowledge, I was very impressed (and later thankful) of his knowledge of anatomy and bio-mechanics. I was wearing a new pair of Asics 15’s, so new in fact that Rory had a good laugh at how shiny and white they were; just before he led us through a waterlogged field! It was pretty funny (and wet & muddy) as I accidentally put my foot in to a full pot hole, moments later the skies opened up and we were totally drenched; by the end of the field I was a bog monster from the knees down. Somehow Rory had very skilfully managed to plan the whole twenty six point two mile course over a series of hills of varying sizes, this helped to keep things interesting. Around the twenty mile mark I found that my left hip was hurting and so was my right foot, I pushed on, Rory had pointed out that with my gait my shoes were not doing me any favours. The pace increased a little as we got towards the last three mile stretch and once Rory started the countdown of two miles, one mile, point seven I felt a sense of achievement that I had made it and was almost finished, then ‘five hundred’… At this point I said to Rory, “Rory, I don’t think I can go on mate, I’m turning back” I was glad that I still had a sense of humour, and as we came around the corner and ran across the road to Rory’s house I found I had a big smile on my face. I stripped of my leggings and removed my trainers which were now covered in cloying mud, stupidly I had not brought and change of clothes with me and they were all in the hotel. After a cup of tea and chat we said goodbye, I drove the other Rory to the station and then went on to the hotel. As I entered the hotel I almost expected them to kick me out, I was just wearing a fleece with lycra running shorts with nothing on my feet, in my hand was a carrier bag with the most foul smelling mud covered kit in it. My feet and lower legs were streaked black from being in muddy water for the last five hours. As I climbed the stairs to my room a guy behind me was staring at my bare legs and feet, so I turned to him, smiled and said by way of explanation ‘washing day.’
This morning I was up and ready waiting for Rory, after a breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans coffee and a banana. He was meeting me at the hotel and then leading the way down to the Gym where he would put me through my paces as part of the assessment. It was quite a quick journey as Rory drives quite fast. When we got there he gave me a briefing of what was going to happen and then we did some measurements, I was happy to find that my body fat is now down at 15.1% and although I still have to get it down to below 10% it’s a good progression from the 34% it was six months ago when I started. My weight is now 98Kg, down from 112Kg. The first test I did was the VO2 test, I got on the tread mill and before I started Rory had a look at my gait, it turns out that the Asics I have are not suitable for me, and unfortunately I have been systematically spraining my ankles wearing them (my right ankle was swollen today.) Rory took off his shoes and handed them over to me to try out, it was a useful exercise as of the two different shoes he was wearing, one worked wonders (Tomorrow I’m off to get myself a pair of Brookes Adrenaline 9!) Then we started the VO2 test, over 12 minutes Rory started at a normal pace and then cranked up the speed until I was beginning to wonder if my lungs would burst, then until I knew they were about to. I can’t remember the last time someone beasted me until I thought I was going to throw up, but that’s how I felt today (more than once!) But Rory knew exactly what he was doing and skilfully pushed me right up against the edge of my ability and kept me there, sometimes shouting close to my face, other times with encouraging words but always motivating me onwards.
Towards the end of the VO2 test he asked me “On a scale of one to Fu*ked, where are you?” Between massive breathes from my burning lungs I managed to reply “Up to the E!”
After the test I was surprised to find out that the test showed I am actually a 3:24 Marathon runner! Which was very encouraging, all I have to do is work at it. After the vO2 test Rory put me through my paces on the weights, then back on the tread mill, I had a hell of a time to catch my breath, after a couple of minutes to get it back I was back on the tread mill and running on a 6 degree incline for 2.5 minutes. I don’t know where I was getting the energy from at this point. My head was pounding. Then we were off in to an adjoining studio for some core work, after my second set of burpies I thought again that I might throw up, I think the only reason I didn’t was because my body could'nt make its mind up between puking or passing out! Finally after two hours I we were done, I went for a shower and Rory started working on my gym program and macro cycle, we met afterwards and we went through the plan together. Over the next ten weeks I’ll be running 480 miles, a Marathon every other Sunday and on the other Sundays, 20 miles. What did I think of Rory Coleman, I am very glad that he is training me; I found him to be an exceptional coach, he has a great sense of humour, is extremely knowledgeable; and is a really nice guy, I couldn’t recommend him highly enough.
As I drove home down the M1 I thought about the last couple of days, and what I want to achieve in life as well as in Namibia, and I've come to the conclusion…I can do it.

How do you eat an elephant?

Bite by bite…

At the moment I’m in a hotel in Derby in England, I knew when I committed to doing the Namibia Ultra-Marathon that I had a hell of a lot of work to do. The physical challenge of getting fit enough to get to the start line was only half of the story, the mental battle and the nutritional education is another. Usually runners who take on Ultra-marathons (officially any distance above the standard 26.2 Miles) have been running for years often with many marathons under their belt already. I started running again six months ago and did my first marathon just three weeks ago, and now I’m about to do my second. I looked around for a personal trainer and through the internet and several recommendations found Rory Coleman. Rory is well known for Ultra Marathons, actually maybe that’s a bit of an understatement, so far he has run 632 Marathons, 163 Ultra-Marathons he holds 9 Guinness World Records and has run 6 Marathon des Sables (six day self supporting, Ultra-marathon across the Sahara Desert, 254 km (156 mile) the equivalent to six regular marathons. The longest single stage is 91 km (55 miles) long.)… And tomorrow I’m going to run a marathon with him. Also with us will be another runner that Rory is training for next years Marathon des Sables… That’s why I’m feeling so amped right now, following my first marathon I couldn’t walk properly for a week; I had an MRI of my right foot done as there was a suspected fracture, thankfully it was only soft tissue damage but blood had pooled along my 5th Metatarsal in my foot. The next two days sees me run a marathon tomorrow and then complete a one day gym assessment with Rory on Thursday.
Whether it be the night before a skydive after I haven’t jumped for a while, or before diving a wreck dive in the sea in strong currents for the first time, its normal to feel like I’m feeling now…. A bit scared, that’s normal. As children we are taught that fear is to be feared, something that is negative. I have learnt to make a friend of it; for fear is what keeps you focused, pushes us on and gives us the edge over those poor souls who are complacent through lack of it. Fear is simply excitement looked upon from a different angle.

Right now I’m out of my comfort zone, like a child who has just taken their first steps and is wobbling not sure if they’re going to trot forwards or fall on their arse. But overcoming that crippling fear that can sometimes take us, and blocking out the voice in your head that tells you ‘I can’t do it’ is just as much part of the training as the running is. Reading the blogs of those who have gone before me, who both completed Namibia Ultra and those who didn’t, there are times when fear, self doubt and pain will be your only companion. I have to be able to make friends with fear and approach it from a different angle, I have to conquer the self doubt and go through the pain, feel it and push on regardless. It’s not a case of being macho, simply a case of that’s what is required.

Dublin City Marathon: The kindness of strangers

Yesterday saw me run my first ever Marathon. I'd entered the Dublin City Marathon a few months ago and had been training hard for it, I'd overcome two injuries in that time Achilles Tendonopathy and a Hamstring tear and was making good progress running four days a week. Every Sunday I run my long run and four weeks ago was up to eighteen miles. Then during a evening dancing Ceroc my left knee went on me and I suffered Patello Femoral Syndrome, which feels like someone is sliding a white hot knife in to the front of your knee just below the kneecap...It bloody well hurts! So I had to rest for a week and then went in to the gym and started on 20 minutes on the cross trainer, it was heart breaking. A week later I built up to an hour on the cross trainer. Last week I got back on the road and was shocked at how hard it was to run even three miles at a slow pace, I did it again a couple of days later and it was better. At the end of the week I finally succumbed to the nasty cold/mild flu thats going around. So it was a slightly nervous Jamile that found himself amid thirteen thousand people on the start line of the 30th Dublin City Marathon. I hadn't slept all that great the night before and was dosed up on Beechams, I reasoned that in Namibia I would be exhausted and have to carry on, if I couldn't do a Marathon when I was feeling low, ill and tired then I'd have a big problem.
I was happily surprised to find that in the first half of the Marathon I was actually making good speed and moving up the field. At 12 miles I was feeling strong and running well, then at mile 13 it was like someone had powered me down. I surely started loosing pace and although I kept running the pace was well reduced. The highlight of mile 14 was when a small boy came out of the crowd at the top of a hill and held out a large orange boiled sweet to me. It was a real boost and helped me pick up the pace. In a window as I ran past stood three large boxer dogs one looking out of the window face on, the second was side on to the bay window but resting his head somewhere behind the net curtain on the first dogs back. It looked like it was one dog with a white body and a brown head with a broken neck! But funniest of all was the third dog that sat behind the second slumped against his friend with his head resting on his friend backside fast asleep! I wish I'd been carrying a camera, it was hysterical.
For anyone who has had their faith in human kindness turned to a cynical hardness I say to you run a Marathon. I saw time and time again total strangers offering me sweets, drinks, oranges from their gardens or tables they set up themselves by the side of the road. People stood in the street for hours just to cheer, clap and urge on total strangers; children lining up to high five the runners as they passed. My spirits were raised at mile 18 when I saw my wife and two friends waiting to cheer me on at an unexpected point. I didn't walk until 30Km, I’d been trying to ramp up my pace since the power down and it wasn't working. So with a heavy heart I decided to walk for five minutes, after which I ran again a bit quicker. I had to walk about three more times and every time I started running again I was a little quicker. By mile 22 I was running again and having just seen my wife for second time I began to ramp up the pace again, by the time I crossed the finish line I was running as fast as I could. I felt elated, exhausted, in pain and very happy. My time wasn't the point, but for those who care it was 05:05:16 its a start.
Today I woke up to find a swollen ankle with a bruise on the lateral aspect of my foot just under the lateral malleolus (the bony lump on the outside of the ankle). My foot feels like its been beaten with a rubber hose and I hope its a soft tissue injury not a stress fracture. Either way the treatments the same so I'll not waste my time in a A&E. My psoas muscles are stiff and sore (They run from the top of the lumbar spine to the femur) but otherwise I'm fine, I loved the Marathon and looking forward to getting stuck back into training hard. My next Marathon is next month.

Possibility

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." TE Lawrence

I've always believed this to be true. Laurence time and time again did what people thought to be impossible, but as Mandela said 'It always seems impossible until its done'.

The begining

Some comments from competitors from the 2008 and 2009 Namibia 24 Hour Ultra marathon...

"We compared shocking blisters and talked of our experiences through the night. One of the competitors had seen in the beam of his head torch the terrifying stare of a hyena."
Bill Martin and Pete Holdgate 2008

"This year half the competitors were pulled from the race, you should be aware that there is a degree of fortune required to finish."
James Dormer 2009

"I have been told that I looked like a ghost when I was carried into the tent and when my body started to cramp and shake Amy put me on IV drip. People who manned CP3 said it resembled a war zone, as if in an episode of M.A.S.H.! People passing out, people staggered into camp on feet that cannot be described in words, snakes crawling through camp and even under some of mattresses the participants sat on!......

What a race, the Namibian Ultra Marathon in 2009. Out of 23 participants only 12 made it to the finish line."
Joakim Jonsson 2009

"If bitten by a venomous Horned Adder or a Namibian Puff Adder, it could result in the loss of a limb and potentially death if anaphylactic shock kicked in! Faan went on to explain “It is common that the first runners’ vibrations alert the snake, and subsequent runners would be targeted.” The warning hiss will be your only indication that you are too close, and the unfortunate runner that stands on the startled snake will quickly get the point…two of them to be exact… and your Namibian Ultra Marathon Race will be over and you then enter a very different race… a race against the ultimate competitor… the ticking clock!"
Andy McMenemy 2009

Reading the above you may well wonder what inspired me to enter the 2010 Namibia 24 Hour Ultra Marathon, a 24 hour race across 128 Km (three back to back Marathons) of the worlds oldest desert.
It started while I was on a Aer Lingus flight about six months ago. During the flight the attendants made an announcement saying that they were going to collect change for the charity of the month, that charity was the Laura Lynn foundation. I'd never heard of the Laura Lynn foundation but what I heard moved me greatly. The foundation was set up in memory of two daughters of the McKenna family, Laura and Lynn who died tragically within two years of each other. Laura was born with a hole in her heart and died just 4 years old, in her short life she had endured two serious operations, six months in hospital and sadly did not survive her third and final heart repair operation.
Her Mum Jane describes her on the Laura Lyn website '‘a very happy, funny, beautiful little girl. A real Shirley Temple with her mass of curls, she always had a smile and made us all laugh so much – she was so cute and so brave’.
Lynn was 13 when she was diagnosed as having Leukaemia, it was on the day that little Laura passed away.
Jane says ‘’Lynn had a wonderful 3 weeks in which she knew she was dying, wished it could be different, but accepted it with dignity, aged just 15. She had great courage and huge acceptance. She lived every minute of those weeks to the full, which is how we should all live our lives. She taught us how to live and how to die. It is why we are where we are, and why we survive. While our own situation is very sad, there are many families coping with far worse. Our hope is to help those families out there, whose children have life-limiting and/or life-threatening conditions, and are coping at present with limited support.’’

This was the first time I heard about the Laura Lynn foundation, I gave what little money I had on me but as I left the plane and walked down the steps the story stayed with me, and with it a growing certainty that I had to give more, do more. It struck me as scandalous that there is not even a single children’s hospice in the whole of Ireland. This despite there being over 1,400 children with life limiting and life threatening conditions, such as cerebral palsy, profound brain damage, meningitis, HIV and cancer each year and over 354 children's deaths a year in Ireland. Yet no where for these children to spend their last days except in a hospital surrounded by busy staff in a clinical environment often with no where for their parents to stay.

So at seventeen and a half stone and not having run in years I looked about for a significant challenge. I was certain that I would be able to do a Marathon and also wanted to do something extreme that would be a true challenge. I found the Namibia 24 Hr Ultra on the web, it turned out that it was being raced that week, which gave me a year to sort my self out and train hard. I thought long and hard about the challenge, it is not something to take lightly. In fact it was after a month of hard contemplation before I finally made the commitment and entered the 2010 Namibia Ultra Marathon.

The training went well at first and I slowly but surely started dropping in weight. I found a training plan for novice marathon runners on a website written by Hal Higdon a very well known marathon runner. Unfortunately after a few weeks I developed Achilles Tendinopathy a condition effecting the Achilles Tendon, at this point I had lost half a stone and was feeling better for it. I rested for a few weeks and rehabilitated using swimming and stretching exercise building strength back into my lower legs. When I returned to running kept to the flat runs and built up slowly again to running the hills. The weight kept coming off and all was going well until a niggling old hamstring injury reoccurred forcing me once more to rest. However in a few weeks I was running again. Three weeks ago I managed to get my third (and I hope final) injury. I was at this point running four times a week up to 36 miles a week, my long run on a Sunday was up to 18 miles. Then I got a little over ambitious during a evening dancing and damaged my knee…Not a happy chappy! I rested and then started training in the gym again working on the cross trainer. This week I returned to the road but kept the distance down as I am due to run my first marathon on Monday 26th Oct the Dublin City Marathon. I'm now down to fifteen stone eight and can't wait to ramp up my training.

http://www.lauralynnhospice.com/about_us.html

If you'd like to sponsor me please follow the link below

http://mycharity.ie/event/jamile/