6th December 2019 ➡️ 7th June 2020
6 months between these 2 pictures. In the one on the left I’d spent most of the weekend in A&E in absolute agony, being poked, X-rayed and scanned, before being sent home doped up to the eyeballs on morphine. I don’t remember much of that weekend, but it marked the start of a very scary period of time, one where I couldn’t dress myself, getting up from a chair took about 5 minutes, and I couldn’t sleep unless I was heavily sedated. There were days where I only got out of bed to take more painkillers, and the idea of running again seemed like an unachievable dream. Fast forward 6 months and this morning I ran 4 miles in the sunshine. It wasn’t fast, and I stopped to walk a few times, but I ran, and it felt amazing. Of course, that 6 month ‘fast forward’ was anything but fast in reality. First I had to get body used to walking again after weeks of bed rest. Everything hurt all the time. Then some stretching. Then some LOW impact exercise. No, you can’t do star jumps you dick. Put that kettlebell down. Gradually some strength came back and the fear of ending up back where I started diminished slightly. I started doing incline walks on the treadmill. Then a bit more strength work. Then added some high impact moves into the mix. Don’t forget to stretch. God this boring. I stopped eating like an idiot and lost 1 and a half of the 2 stone I’d put on whilst comfort eating for Britain. Eventually I felt confident enough to try some run walk intervals on the treadmill. All my limbs remained intact, so I tried it again the following week. And again. Then I decided to be brave and do an OUTSIDE run. I was terrified something would go wrong and I’d be too far from home to walk back. But it was fine. I didn’t break. So I did it again. And again. This morning I decided I needed to break the psychological half an hour barrier. Hence the 4 miles. Which aren’t going to win me any medals, but who needs medals when your body works properly and you can go and run 4 miles in the sun?! This is by no means the end of the journey; if I want to run a marathon again one day, this is just the beginning. There will be more challenges and set backs to come no doubt. But for now I’m SO bloody proud of myself for not being beaten by this; here’s to coming back stronger 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
Running on Prosecco 