100 mile grand slam fundraising
The link to the fundraiser is above. For each of the races there will be a live tracker if you like “dot watching”.
28 days to go!
Now the dance show is over, time to concentrate on the Winter Downs 200
Last weekend was our dance show, “One Night Only”. We had been training for this since January – how they manage to do it in a week, every week, on Strictly amazes me. It was a long day with the dress rehearsal running slightly late due to technical issues. It was all the more painful because the family had had McDonald’s for breakfast whereas I made do with an orange juice so that nothing could interfere with my meds.
We (the adult tap/dance class) had 3 routines to perform: “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” (line dance), “Remembrance Day” (tap dance) and “Hairspray” (tap). For those that know Hairspray, I was Edna Turnblad so was dancing in a dress. The looks on the kids faces as they walked past me while I was waiting to go on stage were hilarious. We had a great time on stage with the odd fluffed part of our routine but Hairspray went really well – hopefully the audience enjoyed it as much as we did.
It was a long day, and the stress/nerves wiped me out, so the planned run on Sunday was binned for a day of rest.
Tonight’s entertainment was a Zoom call hosted by the Centurion Running, which ran (no pun intended) through the important points around the race and covered everything from the kit check before the start, through to how long you could crash at the race HQ after you had (hopefully) finished.
The briefing emphasised how our safety was key, which means that having the proper kit is essential. Not just something that will suffice for the kit check, but could potentially save your life if something went wrong or the conditions live down to our worst expectations. Apart from the official kit list other suggestions of useful extras were being made, including goggles which could be vital up on the South Downs as it was likely that a head wind will await us, which could also bring sleet, snow or hail.
In spite of the potential pitfalls (or because of them?), the buzz around the race is amazing with real positivity coming over the interractions on social media. The important thing for me will be to pace myself as this will be crucial to me being able to complete the 205 miles (it’s been rounded down for the race name) within the 96 hours. The next four weeks will be spent ticking over and maintaining fitness to make sure I can get to the start line, as I suspect I’ll only get one crack at this.
One piece of kit that’s not on the official list is my mood spinner. I dare say that several times it’ll get used to express how I’m feeling during the race!
200 miles, in 4 days, in December.
What could possibly go wrong?
A big THANK YOU! to everyone who has supported me on my 50 mile Grand Slam, whether by raising awareness, sponsorship or helping me through the races. The Chiltern Wonderland report is here: https://puckfarkinsons.uk/finished-business/
I started the year with the goal of completing the slam, but things have somewhat expanded with the Winter Downs 200 which is my next fundraising challenge. The fundraising page is here: https://app.collectionpot.com/pot/puckfarkinsons200/
The fundraising is being split between Cureparkinsons and Parkinsons UK (which is why it is via Collectionpot this time rather than Justgiving, as fundraising via them for more than one charity is a pain).
Wendover Woods 50 miles
Part 3 – Easyjet don’t fail me now!
On Friday 7th July I’ll be leaving the WPC early to catch a flight back to Gatwick, trundle home and swap the car for the Campervan and then head off to Aylesbury to camp. Hopefully I’ll get a good night’s sleep as on Saturday I’ll be running (although more likely crawling) 50 miles through Wendover Woods for the third part of the “slam”. The fundraising is nearly at £1500 now, which is amazing!
The route is 5 loops of 10 miles and you can see from the picture how loopy it is. It’s also full of evil hills and the overall height gain is over 3200 metres (10500 feet in old money). It’s so evil we get an extra couple of hours to complete it – which means that the final cutoff will be at 00:30 on the Sunday morning.
The scale on the route profile slightly distorts the steepness – but it feels that bad when trying to run it! I’m hoping that the weather isn’t as hot as the SDW100 as the trees and hills will make it even worse with no breeze to cool us down. Hopefully I won’t bring the heat of Barcelona back with me!
Veering slowly, losing identity.
It’s been a while since my last post. That’s due to several reasons: holiday, work, taking my son to Uni, volunteering at races, running a mmidnight marathon, and the main one – parkinson’s.
We drove Buster the campervan down to Switzerland via the tunnel for a week with some friends in the pretty village of Saas Grund. The landscape is stunning, with glaciers on either side of the valley. The camping fees include free bus and cable car tickets so it was easy to get up into the mountains. One highlight was a night spent up in a mountain hut, which is quite luxurious really with thick duvets and a three course meal. The night up high was needed in order to get an early start in the morning for a trip to a nearby peak called the Jegihorn, involving some Via Ferrata.
For those who don’t know what Via Ferrata is, it is scrambling up a mountain clipped onto a steel cable often using metal rungs or pins hammered into the rock. It lets you take routes that are quite exposed. I didn’t take many photos while on the mountain because I didn’t trust myself not to drop my phone and it was a long way down!
Nearing the final climb the path splits. The hard path takes you via a suspension bridge to a hard climb. By this stage I was feeling really tired so we took the slightly easier route to the top, but Nige went out on the bridge with the Puckfarkinsons flag.
We scrambled to the top and had chance to admire the views which were spectacular. The path back down was pretty steep but we had to get a move on as thunder storms were forecast and it’s not ideal to be on top of a mountain holding onto a steel cable with lightning in the air!
After we returned home it’s been a busy couple of months at work, and I’m finding that it takes more and more of my energy to cope with that at the moment. I did take a day off to take my son off to Swansea University which is a really nice campus next door to the Gower peninsula. Luckily he’s got a disabled access room which is at least twice the size of a standard room. Unfortunately it’s on the 7th floor which on moving in day meant some hard work as the lift queues were quite long!
A while ago Budgie and I entered the “Midnight Marathon” on the South Downs for a giggle. Without much training we didn’t have high hopes. Unfortunately Budgie suffered from stomach issues and had to drop out after 12km. I thought I would get to half way and retire but at the checkpoint I felt (relatively) fine so carried on until the finish – which was an unexpected bonus, although it took three cups of tea before I felt vaguely human about 3am (it was the midnight marathon after all!)
The title of this blog entry is based on a shipping forecast t-shirt (I have a thing for t-shirts!) and seems quite apt. The disease is still progressing. My hands (especially the left) get stiff when the meds have worn off or aren’t working so typing is difficult. My voice is getting even softer which means repeating myself more often. The digestion is slower – which impacts on the effectiveness of the meds. I know it’s still early days yet – but I do wonder what the future holds knowing the only direction of travel is downhill.