With London Marathon this weekend, and the fact I know we have a couple of runners on this board, I thought this would be a good thread to make.
Entered the ballot again this year for London Marathon, haven't got it 4 years in a row lmao, and I'm not going to even try raising 2k for charity to run it. Instead I'm hoping to run Firenze Marathon in November this year. Kicking off the training and taking it up a notch recently with a 10 mile run every weekend.
Anybody got any runs coming up? Or wanna do an MGF run in an organised race together? Get a little relay team going lmao.
(26-04-2025, 10:20 AM)Jassassino Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not going to even try raising 2k for charity to run it.
That is fucking insane. I wouldn't be surprised if this extends to other Marathons as well. Manchester has gotten pretty popular recently (4th biggest in Europe in terms of participants but I could have read that wrong) and dread the cost, I'd like to do the Great Manchester Run (only 10k) as they were great days out, but it's the most popular 10k around..
I'm holding off on running outdoors as long as I can because I know I will have to buy myself a pair of Beats
Fit Pro because they're the best exercise headphones I've ever had and my current ones will fall out. I can't afford that right now. But the weather is pretty good right now and I've not ran outside since the pandemic. Fucking descisions.
So, had a pretty terrifying experience last Sunday whilst on a routine long run which I feel like people who want to run/do run regularly should hear, as well as wanting - generally speaking - to talk about it and articulate some of my thoughts and emotions about it. So here it goes:
I was 11km into a 16km run with a close friend of mine, felt absolutely fine for the majority of it and was having casual chit chat and conversation throughout it. Suddenly, around the 11km mark, the sole of my foot felt a bit numb. I thought this was actually a trainer problem, so I stopped to check my shoe and readjust - it all looked fine, so I kept on. Less than 10 steps later, I began to lose feeling in my foot, spreading to my left leg and I began to fall down - losing total bodily autonomy and control, I was virtually screaming to my friend to help for about 5 seconds flat, he had caught me more or less (I still took a bit of a tumble down onto the ground) but he and three passerbys propped me up against the wall and covered me in a blanket, gave me water and called an ambulance. I collapsed and was out cold for about 5 minutes, biting my tongue as I fell (which has given me a temporary lisp and difficulty to chew anything solid - it's nothing but yoghurt based meals for me right now pretty much).
What happened? The most likely culprit was a mini stroke or heart attack (most likely the former) induced by heat exhaustion. Because we started early, we began running in the shadows at around 9:30, when it was relatively cold. I hadn't drank any water since about 16 hours prior, I'd had no food since about 16 hours prior either and by the time I collapsed, it was around 10:15/10:30 and the sun was beaming directly on us both. Following that, I spent around 8 hours in A&E with various tests done including CT and ECGs, bloods and blood pressure markers, I've got a set of follow ups booked in to double check I'm okay as well in the first week of September.
It's been pretty traumatic for me, I'm quite scared to go out alone, I'm drinking water like a camel (this is definitely a positive repercussion) and I'm not afraid to start carb loading too before long runs. I'm not ready to run again yet (I'm going to give it a little longer break before I do) but aside from my weekly Wednesday run with my club, I'm also going to switch to treadmill running and training to control my environment better and take regular water breaks. Even typing this has me shaking a bit, honestly it's something I hope nobody here ever goes through, and really highlighted to me just how much you hang in the balance between total control of your self - your physicality, and how quickly that can be stripped from you if you neglect to acknowledge basic needs and requirements.
I do hope I can get back to running as I was, I'll still endeavour to train as hard as possible for Florence Marathon, but if anybody is to take any advice from this - please hydrate, eat properly and consider all the conditions outside. And make sure too, if you're running alone, somebody knows and knows to check on you if you're late. I've went out running without my phone dozens of times - never again.
And honestly, if there's nobody for you to ask to check in on you on a long run to make sure you're back safe, PM me and I'll happily do so over WhatsApp.
Try not to be discouraged from running man, I know what happened is scary but you can't let it take away from the things that bring you joy. Running on a treadmill may be a good substitute for the exercise element but it's a far cry from what your usual routine must do for your soul. Take what happened as a reminder to care about the basics of looking after your body before the advanced looking after your body, and not something to fear is bound to repeat itself. Think about how many runs you've been on where this didn't happen! Buy a small phone that can just make calls if you don't want your bulky main phone, and just take enough water with you or run on a route with fountains and I think you'll be alright as long as you're hydrating and eating beforehand. (Don't be afraid to make Julien wait for you if you're running late. Send him a link to Family Guy funny moments he'll be fine!)
Yeah I definitely want to get back to road running and cross country etc. As soon as I'm comfortable doing so, but I'm affording myself the time to just relax and not rush and do so when I feel ready. You are right as well in regard to looking after my body, I think this is giving me a good opportunity to think seriously for maybe the first time in my life about my nutrition, how do I ensure I meet those daily needs? Etc. Hopefully it won't be too long, but if it is, that's also okay. I've got until November to get my confidence back in this. Basically, lotr-fotr-I-wish-none-of-this-had-happened.gif