Dark Days, a dodgy knee, the youngsters doing it for themselves and the next couple of runs!

Sorry for the gap between the blog posts...

Be warned, this is one of those honest blogs I promised...

Sometimes you get hit by news that throws you sideways, another GUCH I was close to died last weekend and it hurts.

Three in a summer is not good, and there's no words I can say that describe that combination or sorrow and rage that I can't say what I should've said over the years and I wasn't a better friend. I hope all three of them would at this point have looked at me and told me to grow up stop being stupid, and to get on with it... Actually I'm fairly certain that 2 of them would and one would've just smiled and sighed at me!

But life goes on, however painful their absences are, however much I'm going to miss the sage counsel, love of life and photography tutorials and all I hope is that some of what I do in my various roles would meet their approval.

So to the running, or lack of it... I've no idea what I've done to my knee, bit its hurt like hell for a week. It started when standing up after a cup of tea at the climbing house, so this could be an official tea related injury. So other than the 11km walked on last Sunday, and a 5 km walk before the CHF Federation day today I've not done a lot... in fact I've rested and carboloaded...

I feel honour bound to point out that carboloading is a vital component of elite athletes training and prep for big events, and for me is damn fine excuse to pig out;-) I'm not (quite) that bad, and the coming week will be sensible food as much as possible in preparation for the Great North Run. The GNR is the race that got me into running, and I've never “forgiven” those responsible for starting this off 7 years ago... Actually I owe Mike and Dave a fair bit and if they read this then they'll now the pant wetting nervousness I'll be going through the next 6 days, and the absolute relief that you get when you see the sea and know that you've survived another half marathon!!!!

As mentioned above I was at the CHF Federation Day, as a CHF Trustee and also a representative of GUCHs... One of the things that was an absolute delight was seeing the next generation (crap that makes me sound old!!!) of young people with heart conditions begin to organise themselves and enjoy the sort of support from each other that we GUCHs have both nationally and internationally.

The rest of the day was debates on the development of safe and sustainable surgical services for heart kids, and while the debate will range (and rage) about where is a good centre is based and how it links in with other services at local and regional levels we did all agree that the kids came first... If anyone reading this want to contribute to the debate then please follow this link and contribute http://www.childrens-heart-fed.org.uk/?a=70682

Oh, and what can a GUCH add to the mix? I hope the perspective of the little kid in the bed (as I was) will be useful and I hammer home the point (and I'm sorry but I will say it until I'm convinced it happens) that there needs to be planned, individualised, transition to safe and sustainable adult services!

To finish with the running the next 3 races will be: GNR, Liverpool 10km (4th Oct), Liverpool Santa Dash (6th Dec)... If you're about wave and cheer!!!

TTFN

Paul

Comments

  1. PaulWillgoss12 September 2009 at 19:59

    ps forgot to mention the switch to my winter season of walking...

    I'll be taking a mate up Snowdon (mid Oct), and organising the Guch Walking Club trip to the Peak District (mid Nov)

    ReplyDelete
  2. CalmDownDear13 September 2009 at 18:23

    Nice to meet you yesterday Paul.

    Will be cheering you on (albeit from Stoke) on Sunday. Hope your carb- loading doesn't include too much beer!

    So sorry about your friend - it does rather bring in to focus the fact that life is for living and not standing on the sidelines, as Emily is at pains to tell me. Rather too often.

    Take care

    Jackie x

    ReplyDelete
  3. PaulWillgoss14 September 2009 at 21:59

    Jackie,

    good to meet you too!

    Life is for living, but you need some level of commonsense - so no beer for me until its all over!!!

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

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