That was the year that was....
My first blog in seven months... Sorry, so this is a bit of a round up... a reflection on 2018 if you like...
Friends have died this year, people I cared for, people I loved and people I admired for what they did and how they did it.
Some, like me, were born with their heart condition - none of them would have considered themselves sufferers, they looked forward to each new day with a smile, a grimace or the occasional ache and pain but they then lived that day. Not in some new age claptrap YOLO, live life to the max, being a warrior, because those ways are intensely tiring and when you are living life you don't need something else to tire you out.
There will always be regrets of conversations not finished, or worse not started, of hugs not given and news you can no longer share, but I am proud of them, the lives they lived and hope my part (however big or small) in their lives made them smile.
One thing that would've made many of them smile would've been the costumes Jiminy and I have worn as we've supported the Childrens' Heart Association - we've been Santas kidnapped by aliens, Harry & Meghan, R2D2 & BB8 and then in the weird category Hippos in Tu-Tus and Boxing Day Sharks...
The medal haul looks good...
But hides the fact but between the races (inc ones without medals - like when we raced a barge; it went through a tunnel, we went over the hill) I've barely trained, 10 park runs do not make a solid training base. So, the new year comes around and I'll try to build the good things in, the things I know I can do and have done before - the solid base, three or four runs a week most at a steady slow pace and cross-training in between - my new fun 45 minutes a week of boxercise and the bike and dreaded concept 2000 (I'm sorry my knees and elbows interlock on a regular basis... its not pretty)...
So what hit the training? Partly life, the fun stuff - the month in Oz, just me and Jiminy being me and Jiminy and the less fun stuff. Someone recently said that being a patient rep isn't an onerous task... No, it shouldn't be, but when a service collapses and patients are in harms way that's when patient reps lives can be turned upside down... The small group of us in the NW have given up lunchtimes, afternoons, evenings and weekends to attend meetings, argue for our care, to listen to patients concerns and do our damnedest to represent them fairly. Some of this will never be seen, the emails and calls alerting the nurses to patients on their way into A&E, who've raised what look like urgent concerns in our FB group, through to the time we spend just reading posts to see if there's something that can be done to help or ease what someone is going through. The CHA has been amazing in the support they've given us adults in the NW and without them I don't think we'd still be standing.
So in a year where I've been a Stormtrooper to Jiminy's Darth Vader; a bunny being chased by her fox, my last and biggest thanks is to her, for putting up with me when I've been wading through NHS terminology, getting grumpy and distracted by things...
So onto 2019, and the first run... (other than the park run) a gentle half marathon around West Lancashire - last year there was ice, and Freddos!!!
TTFN
Paul
Friends have died this year, people I cared for, people I loved and people I admired for what they did and how they did it.
Some, like me, were born with their heart condition - none of them would have considered themselves sufferers, they looked forward to each new day with a smile, a grimace or the occasional ache and pain but they then lived that day. Not in some new age claptrap YOLO, live life to the max, being a
There will always be regrets of conversations not finished, or worse not started, of hugs not given and news you can no longer share, but I am proud of them, the lives they lived and hope my part (however big or small) in their lives made them smile.
One thing that would've made many of them smile would've been the costumes Jiminy and I have worn as we've supported the Childrens' Heart Association - we've been Santas kidnapped by aliens, Harry & Meghan, R2D2 & BB8 and then in the weird category Hippos in Tu-Tus and Boxing Day Sharks...
The medal haul looks good...
But hides the fact but between the races (inc ones without medals - like when we raced a barge; it went through a tunnel, we went over the hill) I've barely trained, 10 park runs do not make a solid training base. So, the new year comes around and I'll try to build the good things in, the things I know I can do and have done before - the solid base, three or four runs a week most at a steady slow pace and cross-training in between - my new fun 45 minutes a week of boxercise and the bike and dreaded concept 2000 (I'm sorry my knees and elbows interlock on a regular basis... its not pretty)...
So what hit the training? Partly life, the fun stuff - the month in Oz, just me and Jiminy being me and Jiminy and the less fun stuff. Someone recently said that being a patient rep isn't an onerous task... No, it shouldn't be, but when a service collapses and patients are in harms way that's when patient reps lives can be turned upside down... The small group of us in the NW have given up lunchtimes, afternoons, evenings and weekends to attend meetings, argue for our care, to listen to patients concerns and do our damnedest to represent them fairly. Some of this will never be seen, the emails and calls alerting the nurses to patients on their way into A&E, who've raised what look like urgent concerns in our FB group, through to the time we spend just reading posts to see if there's something that can be done to help or ease what someone is going through. The CHA has been amazing in the support they've given us adults in the NW and without them I don't think we'd still be standing.
So in a year where I've been a Stormtrooper to Jiminy's Darth Vader; a bunny being chased by her fox, my last and biggest thanks is to her, for putting up with me when I've been wading through NHS terminology, getting grumpy and distracted by things...
So onto 2019, and the first run... (other than the park run) a gentle half marathon around West Lancashire - last year there was ice, and Freddos!!!
TTFN
Paul
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