A pint of tea and an Eccles cake....

Sometimes it is the simple things that are the best celebrations...

It was a good walk; we started in fog, moved up into a beautiful view of a cloud inversion snaking down the Derwent Valley...

We then walked up the millstone paved route up to Mam Tor, ducking and dodging the paragliders and hang-gliders whose pilots were enjoying the wind as much as we were thinking it was a bit chilly!

A drop off the other side of Mam Tor, a look at the battlements, and a pit-stop for soup and assorted lunching and then down Winnats Pass en route to Castleton.

 Castleton for a midafternoon snack (occassionally a large snack) and then on into Hope.  As some know I have a soft spot for Hope, it's a large village in the Peak District which has simple tea shops and a decent bakery, a couple of pubs and none of the Pennine Way induced razmatazz of Edale.  It's also a nice metaphor when walks finish in Hope... Or for me, 2012 miles worth of walking and running... :-D

The immediate celebration was another KM worth of walking - it was raining and there was a teashop a-calling, and so the celebration was with tea and an eccles cake whilst merrily flicking through Edale Mountain Rescue's activities for 2011... A dash down to the station and back into Hathersage for a shower and a curry:-)

So how do you follow the miles that take you over a target point for a year... Simple really... You go for a walk the next day:-) Sunday was a 14km stroll down to Chatsworth, the Derwent was close to flooding and after sinking up to mid calf in the mud that used to be a path we opted for the sensible paved route.

Chatsworth was glorious in the sun, the Christmas Market christmasy...

So that was it 2012 km done, done with friends, in a place I love... Not a bad way of bringing up and passing a target...

TTFN

Paul

End Game?

The miles they are beginning to flow... 5 miles yesterday, 10 miles today, add in the two fast-ish 5km's in the week and the bits and bobs and I'm getting close to my target for the year - 2012km in 12 months.

I've 45km to go - worst case I know I can do that in that in one go, probably just over 6h worth of effort...

That's it about 6h... I hate to think how many I've spent on my feet since 1st Jan to get to this point, and yet when I do I smile.  I've been and done a range of new adventures... Which I'll round up when the year is up, as I may still have some more to add...

So where will I finish, if all goes well this week, and I get to run while in London at the start of the week, and fit a run in around Panto practise (and the day job), then I'm hoping I can finish with a few good friends on the flanks of Mam Tor. If I can't fit it all in then it'll probably be at Chatsworth House (still with a few good friends).

I'm not back to full running, I've not run further than 5km for a while, and I know I need to be shortly - first race of 2013 isn't too far away... and I need to find a hill, and run up it and down it many times before then. Yup, I've got a hilly one, or two early in 2013...

So I'd better get back to the packing, two days in London, two in the office... and then the Peak District:-)

TTFN

Paul



 

If its too good to be true...

then its probably not true...

An old adage, but a useful one.

Those of us with long term health conditions learn to manage them (or chose not to) in our own ways. 

Most of the time this management is learnt behaviour, if we do X then Y hurts, of if I don't take tablet A then B goes potty and I end up in hospital.

Some is received knowledge - we're told that  if we do something, or not do something, then something bad will happen.  We mainly get this knowledge from our care teams, but also from the support charities, our peers with the same or similar conditions, cultural references etc etc etc

And then there's the scary people...

They've got magic woo woo beans.

A short cut.

An easy cure...

They don't answer the sort of questions you'd normally ask your Doctor... Does this work?  How many others use it? What are the side effects?

They will misdirect and shy away from the detail, they will offer you insights that "others" won't have, they'll attempt to make anyone asking sensible questions look foolish, accuse them of ignorance, and even when all else has failed attempt to seduce the questioner with appeals to their ego or even their wallet.

Somewhere along the way they say that modern science won't fund their magic beans because there's no money in it, they'll quote impressive sounding things that a Google search doesn't quite pan out as being a impressive as billed.

If challenged too hard they'll hide behind "it was only a joke" and then go back to their main thrust, ignoring the requests for evidence, ignoring the "put up or shut up".

Now they may not be charlatans, they may genuinely believe what they are saying... That doesn't make it any safer, any more sensible. 

Please if someone says they have a magic wand check with your team of medical professionals, the medical profession isn't perfect but it's better than someone who can't answer the questions....

And its not just me saying this - two links, one cancer related and one heart related, questions to ask...

http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Gettingtreatment/Questionstoask.aspx

http://www.chfed.org.uk/how-we-help/information-service/caring-for-heart-children/talking-to-doctors/

If you want to be able to spot the bean-sellers then there's a couple of really accessible books out there - Ben Goldacre's Bad Medicine and Stephen Law's Believing Bullshit.  The second one in particular provides insights into all of the tricks of the "trade" in convincing someone of something irrational.

At the end of the day life is choice, but please make your choices best on the evidence you want to have - if you believe someone elses word then fine, if you want a bit more then ask, if you're like me you'll have your cardiologists, diabetic liaison nurses and GPs reaching for their books - before you've entered the room.

To finish a quote from own of my favourite films, I've used it before but it fits so often - Life is pain, anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something...

Cynical, moi?  Yes... But not inappropriately!

TTFN

Paul

It's coming back... Give us a quid...

Slowly...

As if I'm awaking from a long deep sleep...

The desire to go further...

The need to go fast...

It's been a month, everything that was tweaked during the 50km should have recovered... The body anyway.

The mind takes a bit longer, at least mine does, I need to want to feel that strange mix of delight and pain of doing mile after mile.  Part of it is seeing the objective, that target driven part of my soul that has kept me going these many months being able to reach out over the months to come and taste the goal.

It has been a busy month; the day job seems to have me shuttling to London most weeks and the weeks where it doesn't my representative or charitable roles do, an exam for the last OU course and an assignment to start on the new one, and various other stuff (you know the boring stuff that everyone has to do - yes even I have to do it).

However, I do enjoy most of it (the seats on Virgin Trains I don't, but not many people do) and the day job gives me the cash to support the rest of what I enjoy doing.

And today I went back to basics, back to one of the routes I've loved since I came to Liverpool the best part of 23 years ago.

I also owe you all an update on mileages, awareness raising and fundraising...

With today's 21 km I'm now at 1905km, so 107km to go, that's only 66 miles of the 1250 I set myself to go.  I would dearly love to polish them off and finish at Chatsworth with the GUCH Walking Club - possible... just possible... hard work, but possible...

Awareness raising... well an interview has been sent off, a magazine will be doing a piece, hopefully before Christmas... I'm also chatting to some people about a speaking thing... There'll be more said if and when one gets printed or the other comes off... I am trying:-)

Fundraising - I'm officially at £850... I know there's at least another £51 to come along, and possibly a bit more from friends at work - so if you can please help me nudge up to the £1000 mark it would be really appreciated!

So back to the assignment, and possibly, just possibly looking at runs in 2013...

TTFN

Paul