Daniel's Running Diary #1 - The Story So Far (abridged) and My Second Shropshire Mud Run

Sunday, 20th July 2014

Not a random fat bloke

Hello there.  I was going to start this with "Dear Diary".  In fact, I did do - but you can't see that.  You see, I've already written most of this blog.  It was a finely crafted thing, paced perfectly with what I'm sure was an appropriate level of humour.  But then I went and closed the window and it seems that Blogger doesn't do autosave.  So now you've got this instead!  It's allowed me to do a format change, anyway!

I started out by telling you that if you know my story through http://blog.runkeeper.com/2177/daniel-a-marathon-journey/ then you needn't worry - I'm keeping the detail of that story in there.  So basically, to the right you can see... well, me.

Same non-random not so fat bloke

Then, Diabetes happened.  Long story short, I lost weight and the picture to the left is me, yesterday.

So, as you can see - I am winning the war.  I may have lost a few battles along the way - as you'll read in detail in the Runkeepr link at the top - but where's the fun on something going the right way all the time?

Anyway, I'm doing the running blog as me now, not me then.  If I'd done it then, it might have been something like this:

"Today I ran THREE steps!!!!!!!  OK, I got out of breath half way through, but that's practically a marathon!"

Not the most scintillating of blogs, eh?  I'm not promising this will be much more entertaining, but at least it will contain actual running. 

OK, maybe jogging.

Or shuffling.  Rapidly.

Anyway, on with the actual blog - I'm just going to assume you've read the Runkeeper blog and know all about me, or not give a damn and have stopped reading.  If it's neither of them, I'm sure you get the gist.  I'll use a future blog to go through some of the other events I've been doing.

Just before that though, a bit of housekeeping.  Today I've entered the Shropshire Mud Run Series Round 4 at Hawkstone Park (it includes caves!) and the Burton 10k - organised by the running club I'm in the process of joining, Hatton Darts.  Looking forward to them!

Not actually Superman

Saturday 19th July 2014 - Shropshire Mud Run Series Round 3: Lilleshall

I really loved the last Mud Run I did - back in April, I took part in Round 2 of this series after the urging of a fellow massive weight-loser and have to say I'm a convert to this style of running.  It's loads of fun!  Last time out, at Bomere Lake, I absolutely bloody loved it as you can see to the right.

So on the same day I entered the next one and I've been eagerly awaiting it ever since - the little matter of a Half Marathon not withstanding.  The fact it was at Lilleshall - a place that's meant a lot to sport over the years - was a bonus.

These last few weeks have been hard.  Last year I suffered from an anxiety state and was put on anti-depressants.  I've been feeling very down again though, but this time it was more to do with a depression of the fact my own head felt so restricted.  I wasn't "me" and I knew it.

I put back on 2 stone.  You won't read that in the Runkeeper blog, as it happened after I wrote it!  At the end of last week though I went and saw the Doctor - and he agreed to take me off the tablets.  It took a few days, but "I" came back.  Last week, I lost half a stone on its own!  I'd been for a run on Monday, I did four very slow miles and ached for a couple of days afterwards!  So it was with a bit of trepidation that I lined up yesterday morning.

The adrenaline set in though and I was there as everyone set off...

I can be seen at around 24 seconds there.

Last time I wore a Superman t-shirt so it was only natural this time to wear The Flash!  Perhaps thinking of The Scarlet Speedster himself, I set off at far too fast a pace really.  Like I said - adrenalin.  Thanks to that, I felt like I could take on the world and pushed on, making the first water hole in what I'm sure would be record time if I was able to use my not-waterproof GPS watch or iPhone to track my speed.

After the waterhole though, I think the added weight of recent times plus completely sodden clothing completely did me over.  My legs didn't want to do what they were doing before and I never felt like running at that kind of pace again.

As with the last mud-run, I seemed to be better on the flat hard stuff, and rubbish on the squidgy stuff.  I'm sure there's a euphemism there.  A friend of a friend started catching me up, only for me to move away from her, and that repeated for a while before we just basically stayed together - including on one particularly nasty hill, that I completely failed at getting up, only to be helped by Super Mario and an Oompa Loompa.  Yes, I really did just type that.  No, I don't know where Luigi was.

That was, until 8km in when I dropped back.  For the first time since I've started running, I had the feeling diabetics hate, when you know you've run out of sugar.  Before the race, I'd forgotten part of my usual routine and missed an energy gel - I guess it's more important that I thought it was!  Somehow I muddled through the final water hole, urged on by others, including a fellow diabetic.  Somehow I made it to the finish line - where a friend luckily was on hand with a box of raisins!  The little things.

A flapjack later and I was back at the car and all was well.  I'd finished 50th from the end, and 25 minutes quicker than my last mud run.  I think it was a little easier a course, but I'll take whatever positives I can!

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PS Having now finished the blog, I've now found where Blogger DOES save articles!  Oh well, sod it - here we are now! Back soon.