Talking about life with MS, crafting, knitting and being positive with my friend Chris

When the idea of doing the Edinburgh Marathon relay for MS Scotland was first muted at knitting group I knew I wanted to do it in honour of my friend Chris. Her positivity in the face of living with MS has been an inspiration to me in living with my own long term conditions. Also we met via the popular knitting website Ravelry so it seemed a perfect fit.

I thought that more people needed to hear Chris' story of living with MS and the great work that the MS Society do in Scotland and the rest of the UK. So with a lot of help from my podcasting friend Ant** I have done a podcast! (I'm pretty sure Kirsty Young is fearing for her job right now...)

Please share this podcast far and wide so as many people as possible can be touched by the power of Chris' words. And then please donate to our Just Giving Page if you haven't already done so.

Don't forget that if you donate you can be entered into our prize draw to win some excellent crafty goodness - more details here!

**Huge thanks to Ant for hosting this podcast for free on his Anterviews network. Anterviews is a great project based on Ant's belief that ordinary people can have the most extraordinary stories and he's taking the project to the stage in September so go have a look at his work here

a wee cough

a couple of weeks ago i got a wee cough. i wasn't hugely worried - i had a Marvellous Training Plan which would get me to my marathon mileage with time to spare, so i figured a few days off to recover from what seemed like a mild spring cold wouldn't do any harm.

 

 

well, the "mild spring cold" turned into one of the most revolting, long-lasting colds i've ever had, and despite the above arsenal, my "wee cough" turned into a week off, then two weeks, and my Marvellous Training Plan rather went out the window. it's now been two weeks & two days since i've done any running at all, and allowing for appropriate pre-marathon taper time, i have exactly THREE WEEKS left to train (aaaaaaarrrrggh!!!!). since i'm asthmatic, any lung-related issues, however minor, really affect my training ability & energy levels. so until i finally shift this cough, i can't really get back into running (although i'm hopeful that it's on the way out, and i should be able to start doing small runs again in the next few days!).

 

to say that i'm a tad stressed would be a massive understatement. our JustGiving donations have now surpassed our original goal, which is both hugely exciting and hugely scary. none of us are fabulously sporty, but i'm meant to be the most "experienced" (ha!) runner, and this whole thing was my idea in the first place. we're doing it for such a great organisation, and although we really want to raise as much money as we possibly can, each donation that comes in adds that little bit of extra pressure, and raises expectations that little bit more. and i'm really worried about letting everyone down - my teammates, all you donors, and the MS Society - if i can't do this as well as i want to.

 

i do know that most of this is in my head. i'm putting a lot of pressure on myself, not just to complete my relay leg, but to do it like a "real runner" - i had visions of 8.5 miles at a consistent sub-ten-minute mile (ok, that's not super-fast, but it's fast for me!), a brilliant race day with perfect conditions, and a surprisingly athletic version of myself sailing in to my relay handover point like some kind of elegant gazelle. in the real world, though, even on my best running day, that's never going to happen - i may have been able to achieve the pace time i had in mind, but i was always going to be the wheezing, red-faced, slightly overweight, short-legged, middle-aged sweaty mess that i am.

 

so never fear - i WILL be running at the end of may, and i WILL absolutely finish my 8.5 mile leg of the relay. it may not be pretty, i may not do it in the time i expected, and i may even have to walk bits of it - but i'll get my sweaty self to that handover point no matter what!!

 

(don't forget there's still loads of time to donate & win!!!!)

 

Doing a race recce...(Six weeks to go)

There are a few things that aren't so great about being freelance: no one offers to make you a coffee at work; there's no one to pull a cracker with at your office Christmas party; and you might have to camp out on people's doorsteps to remind them to PAY you.

However, sometimes it is brilliant. Sometimes you can decide 'it's a lovely day, let's go to check out the Edinburgh Marathon route'. And if you are really lucky then one of your racemates is also freelance and you can go together.

So it was that Paula and I were able to skive off work yesterday and head over to Musselburgh to check out where the Edinburgh Marathon will be held in less than six weeks time (eek). And it's quite a good job that we did because it turns out that our parts of the race are quite far away from Edinburgh itself.

Whilst Lilith will be starting in the City Centre for the Royal Leg, heading down the Royal Mile and out to the coast along Portobello Promenade - by the time she hands over to Paula the race will be in Musselburgh proper. Armed with this map from the Edinburgh Marathon Website we thought we'd have a trial 'run' and see what we'd let ourselves in for.

The first thing to say is that this is a gorgeous part of the country to be running in. As we parked up I was thrilled to see that the traditional communal drying lines are still in use here (whereas in parts of Glasgow using these is now not allowed):

The second marvellous news is that once Lilith's initial downhill stretch is over the rest of the course is remarkably flat. The website had told us that the course was flat but you know, different runners have different ideas of what constitutes a 'hill'. Even by our shabby standards it's fair to say, this is a very flat course!

So flat in fact, I kept taking pictures of it, just to prove how flat it is. It's flat:

There's also lots of lovely public art to view along the way. From sculpture:

To painted murals celebrating the area's industrial history as a fishing port, coal mining area and producer of cooking salt:

That's alongside the beautiful landscape that surrounds the John Muir Way* which was looking particularly spectacular in the surprise April sunshine:

And if all that isn't enough to tempt you to come along and support us on the big day well, there's a pub called The Goth. 

FUNDRAISING NEWS!

It's been an exciting week on the fundraising front too as we have smashed through our initial target. With just under six weeks to go we'd love to see that total reach the £1k mark because MS Society Scotland could do some fantastic work with a cool grand so if you haven't already donated please do so and please share this blog far and wide!

Don't forget that those who donate can be entered into our prize draw -  read all about that here There are fabulous new prizes being added all the time so it's worth keep checking back for the latest news. 

*'Who is John Muir and why does he have a 'way' named after him?' we kept wondering as we wandered about the area enjoying ourselves. Well, it turns out he was a Scottish-American naturalist, ecological thinker, political activist and religious prophet. Blimey. Did he ever go for a pint in The Goth though? Wikipedia unfortunately does not tell us this but he sounds like an interesting chap and he certainly has a lovely way. 

Swapsies

Elaine here. With great regret, I've had to pull out of the marathon relay. The piriformis injury I sustained in early February is long-time injury. Despite doing the physio exercises twice a day, I am no further along than being able to do 20 mins once a week on a recumbent bike at the gym, and then suffering pain for 48 hours after.

To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. I'm devastated. Everyone keeps telling that these things take time to heal and I just have to be patient. Well I'm rubbish at being patient. I miss the burn and getting my heart up - even though I hate it too. The feeling afterwards, when you know you've pushed yourself and deserve that big slice of cake. That.

So I'm extremely fortunate that my wonderful husband Steve has been guilted into kindly volunteered to run in my place, despite doing no exercise since his 10K for the MS Society last May.

Here he is at the finish line! I spoke earlier about Steve's mum having MS. Because of this, raising funds for the MS Society Scotland gives Steve and us all in the family some way to fight back against the pain of seeing someone we love go through this. Please donate to our justgiving page - it would mean so very much!

So now I am cheerleader to Team4ply and have been busily making prizes for our prize draw

donate & win....

just in case the idea of four generally sedentary knitting types suddenly taking the mad notion to run a marathon between them wasn't enough to convince you to donate, we thought we ought to sweeten the pot a bit - so we're collecting some pretty fabulous prizes for you lovely folk!!!

here's what to do to get a chance to win something great:

1. go look here at the list of wonderful prizes to be won (& don't forget to keep checking back, as we'll be adding lots more excellent things to the list over the next few weeks!!)
2. head on over to our JustGiving page, and make a donation. it doesn't matter whether your donation is large or small, just that you donate something. PLEASE NOTE that if you want to be included in the draw, you should NOT check the Gift Aid box!!!
3. send us an email to teamfourply AT gmail DOT com with the subject line "i just donated!" and your name & country in the body of the email.
4. feel really good that you've helped us to fundraise for the MS Society Scotland, and prepare to possibly laugh at our wheezingly slow marathon time.
5. wait until after we've finished our marathon relay at the end of may & see if you win something!!!!

easy, right? so go donate now!!!

 

we're also looking for donations of prizes to add to the raffle, both small & large. maybe you run a crafty business & want to promote it by adding a prize to our raffle; maybe you just don't have any spare cash at the moment but have a special skein of yarn in your stash that you feel you could part with. email us at teamfourply AT gmail DOT com with a photo of what you'd like to add to the draw as well as some details about yourself & about the prize, and we'll add it to the list!! (PLEASE NOTE that you will be responsible for sending the prize you've donated to the person who wins it, which may involve international postage!)

 

Running in Berlin...

I'm not quite sure what kind of crazy transformation has taken place for me to have even contemplated keeping up my running training while on holiday but something has definitely shifted mentally because when packing for a five day trip to Berlin the other week I found myself thinking 'I should pack my trainers, I might go for a run'...

And indeed I went for two runs while in Berlin. We were staying near a park called 'Vollspark Friedrichshain' and for my first run I managed about 7.5k:

Of course, being me, in a new place, I got lost on my way to the park and ended up in a cemetery by mistake. I was worried that I might be flouting some bylaw or cultural norm by jogging round that in brightly coloured clothing so I big a hasty retreat but not before taking a pic of some very impressive headstones:

Everyone else jogging round the park (and there were LOTS of them compared to Glasgow/Paisley parks at 7am) was jogging anticlockwise. Once again I was worried that I might be transgressing but nobody arrested me so I think it was OK:

On my second run I did just over 5k but managed to go a bit faster than usual. Berlin is wonderfully flat. There are cyclists everywhere and it is really lovely to run (and walk) around. If you get the chance to go there I heartily recommend it. 

You don't have to run though. You could just go for a beer!

as good as a rest

i've had a blah sort of week. apart from sunday's epic long run (5.5 miles, woot!) my other runs this week were either completely rubbish, or non-existent. i planned runs that never happened (it's raining. i'm too tired. my chair is SO COMFY!) and attempted runs that just felt like crap (i can't catch my breath. my legs are cramping. this hill is HUGE!). & along with other life stresses, i felt like i was getting stuck in a pretty big rut. so i took to twitter for some advice, and the one thing that folk kept coming back with was "change". change your route, the time you run, even your socks - just do something different.

& although us folk on the autistic spectrum aren't awesome with change (massive understatement!!), i decided to give it a go, & drove a few miles to the local country park for a change of scenery.

 

 

i didn't plan a route, or try to run quickly, or spend the whole run keeping one eye on my pace time. i didn't worry about having to take the occasional walking break, or slow down for uneven ground. i stopped to say hello to a few friendly dogs, and to take some pictures of interesting things.

 

 

i ran down hills like a little kid, arms & legs flailing wildly (the park was pretty empty - i may have been a bit more reserved if there had been lots of people around!). i didn't try to stay out of mud puddles (i did try to avoid the horse poop, though, although i'm not sure i was entirely successful), but just splashed right through the middle (some of them were pretty deep, too!). i ran through fields & through deep, dark woods.

 

i enjoyed the rare sight of the sun, & the gorgeous sights & sounds of the countryside. i got soaked to the knees, splattered with mud, & drooled on by the aforementioned friendly dogs (they were VERY friendly!). & since i wasn't that familiar with the park trails, i got a little bit lost, & ended up running nearly four miles without even noticing.

 

& i remembered something that i'd forgotten, because i may have been focusing a little too much on Serious Training....

 

running can be fun, especially if you get to do it somewhere like this.