I don't do many personal posts on here now that my foot is much better however I wanted to do a post about yesterday. It was a great day but the thing that struck me on the way home at the end of the day was how it was pretty much a normal day, it is amazing to think how I no longer have to consider my foot and I am still so grateful that I received radiotherapy. To puts things in contrast, this time 4 years ago I was between by 2 weeks of radiotherapy and probably at my worst or just coming down from my worst as the radiotherapy started to kick in. I was in the last week of my PhD before giving it up due to the Ledderhose and yet to find out about getting my current job, so it was uncertain times. My wife (then of 4 months) was self-employed so things in our life we far from solid and we knew we wanted to start a family. It was during this time that certain things got to me, I could no longer give blood until they were happy the radiotherapy was over and done with, here are a couple of posts I did around that time.
Anyways back to yesterday. Every weekend starts the same way for us, in contrast to how things used to be we always head off to our local parkrun. For those that have never heard of parkrun it is a free weekly timed 5k and there are hundreds of them round the world. It is run by the participants who volunteer and everyone chips in, it gives a great atmosphere and the support is phenomenal. Yesterday was one of the few attempts I get without pushing my daughter round in the buggy so I knew I was going to run hard, to my disappointment the course was changed at the last minute due to flooding on certain sections of the route and the clouds disappeared before the start and it got hot quick.
I am not a super fast runner but I am getting quick, I have run under 20 minutes for 5k on several occasions and finished 7th or 8th several times. We all started off on the new route and somehow there was a group of 5 of us at the front, I was in third and felt good and moved into 1st after 1/4 mile and held on to the lead until around 1/2 mile in. The guys I was running with are the ones I usually see run off into the distance and I was feeling good. The front 2 started to pull away and the guys in 4th and 5th dropped back a little but. So suddenly I was on for a podium, now parkrun is not a race it is a run but I am sure that everyone at the front likes to get the best position they can! At the half way stage I was still in touch distance of the front 2 although the fastest guy started to break clear. My wife saw me around this point and shouted "You're in 3rd!!" .I went past the guy in second but knew there were 2 others catching me, I held one off for a little bit and then could hear the guy in 4th coming, luckily I kept him behind me until about 100m to go when I kicked for the end with by far the fastest finish I have ever done.
The time was not a PB, in fact the quickly arranged course was slightly long, the conditions were not fast as shown by the fact that the 4 people finishing around me have PB's much faster than mine, yet I had come 3rd. A parkrun podium doesn't count for anything but I felt great, I had gotten on the podium, thinking back to where I was all those years ago nobody would have guessed I would end up coming 3rd out of 212 people!!! After finishing I jogged back round the course to find the members of the running group I have just joined and ran back round to the finish with them, they were all in great spirits supporting a member on their 50th birthday and were delighted for me getting 3rd place.
So a great 5k run was actually just the start of my day. My wife had tickets for us to go and see a musical show in London. I am not someone who likes to watch musical shows on the TV or listen to the music at home but the show we went to was fantastic and we both really enjoyed it, especially as our seats got upgraded and we ended up in some brilliant seats. To see the show though we walked to and from the station at both ends which was a lot of walking but it all felt normal.
Whilst all of this was going on I was in contact with a couple of patients and putting a couple of patients in contact with each other as they share a common goal. It is nice to have had such a great week and for everything to have been normal.
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