Hello blog lovers.
Well today I didn't go to club runs, instead St Christophers were having the marathon meeting this evening. An evening to get to meet the fund raisers, a Physiotherapist the other runners and also to have a training session with our own PhysioMike! He has been a champion for Harris Hospice who have now been merged with St. Chrisophers and has helped raise hundreds of pounds doing various things for them, All of that as well as some delicious food!
St Chrisophers Hospice's are just amazing places. When you think about a hospice you immediately think of 'end of life' care. I know I did, especially since mum and dad were in them. Dad passed away in the hospice, my mum spent some time in there, in fact if the very one that I am in! But I think when she knew she wasn't going to get better, she came home to us, and she couldn't praise the staff enough for her care while she was in there.
St Christophers' do so much more. When I arrived there we were shown around, and let me tell you it was hard to keep those tears in check! They had already fallen on the drive down there remembering the times I drove on those roads to go and see mum. But walking about the halls and corridors that I had been on some 7 and half years ago was more emotional that I thought it would be.
We saw gyms for the patients to use, in aid to rehabilitate them so that they can go home! Yes, some patients do go home! We saw a hairdressers for the patients, some times it is necessary for when hair loss becomes a problem. We wandered over to the education centre where they train staff for pallative care, and so much more, but not just for here but for overseas as well.
There is the day centre where patients come in help with their drugs, sometimes they are taking so many it gets confusing for them. Not only that but St Christophers nurses go out and care for those that are at home, like my mum had. There is also a counselling place for kids who have lost people, not just through cancer either but through shootings and stabbings! The only one is South East I think Charlotte said.
So much more than what I thought! I am glad I am raising much needed funds for them. My memory is not much good, and I should try to remember to take notes, but I think she said that they need to raise 12 million a year to be able to do what they do each year. I don't know how they manage it. So with all that in mind, do you know how many people that are here, now, this evening, raising money for them in this, the most prestigious of marathons, 50, 100, 200? Do you know they are only allocated to be able to buy 12 places in the most famous marathon. Twelve places! In total there are only 32 of us who are running for St. Christophers! The other runners are like me who have chosen to run this marathon after getting our places through ballots. A run that generates hundreds of thousands of pounds for hundreds of charities! And here today there were just 5 of us to meet the team.
I will be extremely proud to be wearing my St Chrisophers running vest on Race Day!! If it takes me another 7 hours to do it,I will do it! Our training session was good, although we were not too far from Crystal Palace park it was just to dark to go there to train. PhysioMike had plotted out a loop just over the road to us to do. The four of us was there for there, in the rain, with PhysioMike and his whistle. He had a training session planned that I have done before with him, and it is going to be.....fun!
The session was to run at marathon pace for 12 minutes, then have a rest, then run four lots of 3 minutes at a faster pace with a minutes rest in between, and then rest before doing one last 12 minutes of running at marathon pace! Simples! Well, yes, if you could hear the whistle! I was glad I took my Garmin as I knew really that my hearing is not great these days and I would need to keep an eye on my times!
PhysioMike also called out, when we did our loop of 400m, what our marathon pace would be, and I was totally amazed at what mine was where he called out mine! The times were varying from 2:30 hours to 4. hours (which was mine!) and then the second time we ran for 12 minutes he called out our times again, mine had gone up by about 50 minutes! Still way to fast, and I will have to try and work on that.
After that we went back to the hospice and were fed! Chicken, quinoa, salad and pasta! Most delicious too! And then we had talk by Tim (who's surname escapes me, memory is useless!) He is the physio at Crystal palace, I think. We were learning about the different injuries that we could develop with the extra training, Planta-silly-facious*, something I had heard others mention before and Paella fennal sydrome**, something which I can relate to at the moment actually, as i could feel a slight ache in both knees as I climbed the stairs yesterday!
We also learned about taping! Now there is no good running out and buying your 10 rolls of sticky tape from PoundLand, or raiding the garden shed for the duct tape, apparently it's specially made tape, so make sure you go to a qualified Physio to find out what to do with your specialist tape! With a section on some sort of band*** that goes from your hip to your knee, that apparently would take a crane to get any sort of stretching done on it I was thinking "I am so glad I am cured of my hypochondria, because I am sure I have everything that we spoke about"
It was a great evening, an emotional evening for me. As I was walking about the Sydenham based Hospice I was thinking about mum and what she went through, and because of that I was here now, healthy, 2 and half stone lighter, fitter than I have probably ever been, getting ready to raise money pounds and pounds for St Christophers!
*plantar fasciitis
**Patellofemoral
***Iliotibial band syndrome
Here's my geeky stats.
No comments:
Post a Comment