4 months of obsession, running, doctors, pysio, dieting, moisturising my feet, buying kit, buying some more kit, failing to fundraise, sitting in a sauna for hours, will all be over tomorrow as I board the plane to Morocco tomorrow and start the journey to the start line of the MDS2012.
I should be sat here writing my final blog before the race fitter than I have ever been ready to take on the Marathon Des Sables and race it to the end. But then again this is me, why would I make it easy for myself, I never have before. Then again, going back to my original message, I am doing this to show that anything is possible with the correct support.
I always knew that the training volume would’t be a walk in the park due to the arthritis in my knees, and deliberately avoided carrying a heavy pack in training to avoid injury but I have had a bit of a blow yesterday. Last week I decided enough was enough with the pain I have had in my ankle for the last 4 months, and both my knees had become so painful at points I was not sleeping properly. I took myself off to a specialist Sports Doctor/Consultant (forgote to take shorts and had bright pink underwear on, embarassing moment). In the session on Thursday he gave me a strong cortisone injection in the left knee and acupuncture in the right leg and sent me off for 3 MRI’s on Saturday (NB: the image is not significant and not featured in Rediolgiest report but thought it was pretty) . Getting the results yesterday was like going through the full encyclopaedia of running injuries to list but a few:
· Completed Fracture of the Distal Fibula
· Chronic sprain of the lateral Collateral ligamentous
· Stress reaction in the medial femoral condyle (some joy- not YET showing evidence of fracture)
· Patella alta, prepatellar bursistis and infrapetella fat impingement
· Chondral irregularity of the medial facet of the patella
· Ilio-tibial band (ITB) friction syndrome
Simply put, my knees and ankle hurt when I run, why so many injuries, well in running, Injury causes injury. After spending 4 months in and out of GP’s surgeries, Doctors appointment, X-ray and £600 of Physio appointment for my ankle, being told I was a bit stupid for thinking I had a Fractured Fibula because I was not in enough pain (maybe I need to learn to overact cos it did dam well hurt), it turns out I was right, and not an insignificant one.
What to do? Do I still run the Marathon Des Sables? Too right I do, way to solve it is to stape on an 8kg pack and run as hard as I can for 6 days and sometimes night. Everyone needs a good Mantra and mine is
‘anything is possible....’
Nothing is going to stop me finishing the Marathon Des Sables. It’s just a small set back, nothing has changed since last week or the week before, apart from I know what is wrong and how to better manage it while I am in the desert.
To be honest my main worry is that I will not shake off my cold, nothing worse than being in a hot country with a cold, TCP and Vitamin C overload, tasty mix, yum.
I am so excited, in 4 days time I will be running through the desert. I feel like I should be panicking, re-packing and packing and re-packing my bag. Only once today, shed some more weight, after adding in some additional snacks my bag has gone up to just under 8kg, I think I can lose a change of clothes and a few other bits to get me down to 7.5kg and I will be happy. I can afford the extra 1kg now I am like a Skelton, my diet was a success and I am now somewhere between 65 – 70kg depending on which scales you believe, lot less than the wapping 78kg I was after eating too much haggis in Scotland for 9 months.
This is my last post now until I am back, the last time I will boar you all with stories of my injuries, issues or psychiatric rambling sessions. Just a massive thank you to all those of you have stayed tuned throughout, I think I have driven a few people mad (sorry housemates). I am amazed at the generosity of some of my Friends and Family and people I don’t even know who have donated to Springboard, there is still time so if you have not already, please do click the link on the right of your screen, I still have a long way to go to meet the target and remember none of your donations are going towards my jolly but all to the charity.
While I am away I will be out of contact so I have asked my dad to up-date the blog once a day with my results and progress. Remember, his views are his own, if I am trailing behind the camels (a camel walking pace sets the minimum speed to stay in the race) and a positive work is used, re-think what I would actually be saying – it is unlikely to be any suggestion that I am doing well.
If the excitement gets too much for you and you want to see how I am getting on checkpoint by checkpoint I have included a link to the site below:
"For friends and family wishing to send you emails during the MdS from 7
April:
They will need to go to http://www.darbaroud.com/index.php?lang=en and click on ?Write to a competitor? or ?Ecrire aux concurrents?. They will need to have your running number (DOS). They must NOT try to send attachments or anything other than plain text, or the email won?t be delivered! "
My race number is 357.
Because I am lazy and running out of time to finish the 101 things I still need to do today before I even start the last minute panic that I have forgotten to by some of the compulsory kit I have stolen the weeks agenda from another competitors blog running – I would highly recommend this, unlike mine it is very well written and makes me smile each time I read it - http://eoinscottmds.blogspot.co.uk/
“to give you an idea of the full week, here are direct links to each stage of last years MdS. These are exact instructions and 'roadbook' instructions given to us the day before the race starts. I suspect that the distances and terrain will be similar this year, bt they have promised some different challenges this year, so let's just wait and see what the organisers have in store for us all!
Thanks again for your support and I will up-date you again when I am back.
Donate at: http://www.justgiving.com/steven-artistmds
Best of luck Stevie. Keep thinking that there is a G&T waiting at the finish and you will be fine. Tom
ReplyDelete