The Walker With Heart

4 weeks until the Liverpool Half Marathon... Last year it was a stepping stone to the Edinburgh Marathon, this year its a stepping stone to the Coast 2 Coast... 4 weeks to get the timings and speed right, 4 weeks to perfect any race strategies I want to try... Part of me would dearly love to be one of my mates who can just blat out 13 miles without thinking about how to do it... But if it was easy I probably wouldn't do it. As regular readers know I'm also type II diabetic, so as well as keeping an eye on my heart rate I need to balance my bodies cravings for carbs with my bodies inability to process them properly... Not always an easy balance, as my diabetic nurse will testify, and this half of the year I'm trying a different approach, so we will see at my 6 month diabetic check up if the balance is better! As regular readers also know this blog was always going to be honest... Another GUCH friend, and member of the GUCH Walking Club, died a little while ago. I don...

Ok , I'm fully expecting to be pilloried for this blog, and the easiest thing to do would be to duck the issue... However, that's not who I am. The Safe & Sustainable review of children's heart surgery has produced its options, and all of the documentation that underpins them. They're published on the NHS website here: http://www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/document/meeting-joint-committee-primary-care-trusts-jcpct-16th-february-2011-agenda What will be happening over the next couple of months is that you will have the opportunity to comment on these options, challenge their validity and put forward your points of view. I'd suggest that you read the documents, in case your concerns have already been addressed, and so your arguments are based on evidence. Just putting up that you disagree won't cut much mustard, to get the best option for all heart kids needing surgery you need to give the reasons why a configuration works or doesn't work. Now for th...

So its over for another year... 8 months in planning, 8 hours in the delivery... routes walked 3 times, twice to make sure they were interesting and accessible, once with a gaggle of GUCHs , friends and families... The annual social and stroll is a gentle amble around a city, seeing some of the more unusual sights (Friar Tuck in a mini skirt... http://gouk.about.com/od/ukshops/ig/Leeds-Arcades-and-Market/Ivanhoe-Clock-Leeds.htm) and more importantly a chance to chat with each other. Sometimes about GUCH issues (from the light and fluffy - which doctors are fanciable, which have no personality... to the more serious, when we've got check-ups, which of our friends are in hospital) and sometimes about nothing in particular. Did we raise any awareness? Not sure - the woman in the balloon shop (sorry, card shop - Bayliffe & Lupton , in County Arcade) knows we exist - thank you for the discount!!! The BHF event going on seemed to know about us... The nuns at the Wheeler Hall wer...

3km... 3,000 slow metres... Every other K was at 7min pace or below, but those 3, into a wind that was threatening to lift my 100kg bulk up, slowed me up! However, my target was to get round in 1:15... so I can't really beat myself up over 14s... Ok, I shouldn't beat myself up over 14s... The job now is to build on this for the next 8 weeks for the next race is the Liverpool Half Marathon. But this week's focus is the GUCH PA Social & Stroll in Leeds - its not too late to sign up, http://www.guch.org.uk/events/forthcoming/chd2011 TTFN Paul