Today Dad is on day 19 of his 40 day run, so almost at the half-way mark! Amazing! And so good that he has so much support with him as he runs, what a great team!
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Day 17: Thursday "When I woke up this morning, I was pleased to see that my swollen ankle had gone down a bit overnight. Doc came and started on his usual taping treatment on my toes and announced that David Hislop, last week’s physio was doing a 150 mile round trip from Stranraer with his ultrasound machine to give my ankle some treatment. I am so grateful to him for taking the time to do that and it has certainly helped a lot.
I have tibialis anterior tendonitis. It hurts to walk more than it does to run.
I started off running with Frances this morning in generally good weather conditions. It was sunny, but very cold when the sun went in. Frances ran 10 miles with me which was just about to the Border. Then Sue took over and it was OK running south and felt I was really back on track and moving well. However, when we went over the Iron Bridge across the Solway Firth we were in sleet and high winds and it was very cold. Then it improved for a bit and then it hailed on us. At least the wind was at our back or at our side. If it had been head on it would have been almost impossible.
We were completely soaked and needed to get running again to warm up, but we went around a corner and there was a level crossing down so we had to wait for the train. There was nowhere to hide from the wind and our temperatures plummeted.
At that point, all our forward planning paid dividends. The back up vehicle called the campervan, Doc’s mobile treatment centre, and the campervan came back and we changed into dry clothes, and had hot drinks and sandwiches whilst wrapped in foil blankets trying to warm up. Anyone watching the tracker on the website may have noticed that we had stopped.
Sue sensibly bowed out at that point and Raj ran the last 7 miles with me. It was still very cold when we started running again and we had to put on so many layers of clothes that we could hardly move and the second half of the run was definitely much slower than the first half, with more walking than running. The marathon today took 7 ½ hours overall, and we did not do an extra mile today because it had been such a hard day.
Doc is still really pleased with my feet. It is not very good for them to be soaking wet as they were for a lot of the day today, but yet more shoes should be ready for collection at tomorrow’s hotel."
Day 18: Friday "This morning at breakfast I was tackled about misrepresentation of two of my colleague’s efforts in yesterday’s report. Firstly, Frances does not limit herself to only running in Scotland and she did run into England with me yesterday; and Sue did not give up after we had to shelter after getting so cold in the rain, sleet and hail. We resumed the run together and Raj took over at about 20 miles. Sorry I got that wrong.
Today’s forecast was for showers, but in fact the weather was wonderful and the scenery here in the northern Lake District was stunning.
Raj ran the first 16 miles with me, and we played The Minister’s Cat to pass the time (not for the whole 16 miles I hasten to add). Doc provided us with some of his renowned sandwiches at the 10 mile point – ham and salad today.
Sue ran the last 10 miles with me. It had felt as if it was all uphill since Carlise, but the last part today was downhill to today’s finish line. The route ended at Ullswater after passing Linda and Clive’s door (they ran with me on Monday in Lanark). We knocked but they were not in.
We asked directions from a local person part way along the route today and, as with the other 2 occasions on this trip that we have asked directions, it was a bad idea. They suggested we went cross country. This time it only took us a few hundred yards to realise that the route was too uneven and completely unsuitable and that we were better off with the route we had previously worked out ourselves.
Our hotel tonight is the Royal Hotel, Dockray and it’s just down the road from Linda and Clive’s house. The people here are very friendly and helpful and the food this evening has been fantastic.
The post-run routine has been as usual – feet, cold bath, the shower was a bit pathetic so I had a lovely deep hot bath rather than a hot shower, and then I had a massage session from Raj which particularly featured a pummelling on the soles of my feet which was excruciating. I am sure it must be good for me.
We thought when we left the Highlands that our communications problems would be over, but again we have had no mobile signal today, no internet, no wifi …. so it’s doesn’t only happen in the wilds of Scotland. Unfortunately this meant that we didn’t get to speak to BBC Radio Guernsey today as planned.
Good advert for the Welcome Home Dinner in the Guernsey Press today, I am told, so I hope that raises some interest. Please spread the word about that if you are in Guernsey."
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