Event 4! Kempton Park

So, it has been a while since my last update. I have been rather busy. Training and preparing, so these next two updates will be in quick succession as I have so much to update. Let’s begin with my 4th event, which I finally managed, post covid. It took a while to get over covid, as I’m sure so many people can testify to. It really isn’t very nice. But after 10 days I managed to get back out there training. I had booked in kempton park as a precaution, as my other fall back was demoted to a 10km due to excessive heat. So it was the 3rd race I had booked to attempt to forfill my 4th event.

We made it to London the day before. I must say, I was feeling less that alright. Suffering with a Fibro flare, which for me means lethargy, migrane, muscle aiches and pains, and nausea. But stubbornness kicks in. We went out for some pasta the night before for some good fueling. I am very allergic to Gluten. Not only am I suspected as having coeliac disease (but can’t eat Gluten long enough to have a conclusive test), but if I eat it my whole body swells, and I feel very unwell. Unfortunately there was a mix up at the restaurant, and my wife and I ordered the same dish. I ended up being given the one with Gluten. Well, the next morning I awoke twice my size. Not only that but the fibro flare was still in full swing. But we had travelled all that way, I wasn’t going to let myself or anyone else down. So I just got on with it.

So the other difficultie of the day was set to be the temperature. I knew it was going to be hot, and I always find training tricky in intense heat. But it reached 36 degrees! I had to stop a few times to throw water over my head. The course itself was flat ish, as stated. But being a horse racing circuit, had periods of 50 metres and 150 metres of what I can only describe as a peet like substance, which I had to negotiate 8 times. It was like wheeling on dry sand. It stopped me dead and sapped every bit of strength I had. But I wasn’t going to not finish. So I carried on, and on and on… All 4 laps. I finally came over the finish line at 2:30:45. Actually just missing the world record by 45 seconds. Fortunately it was not the official attempt.

It was a good event. Very exhausting. The toilets were very far from the start, and there were none on route, so I spent the whole way around with a full bladder! A but uncomfortable, but the people were nice and friendly. So post event, I unfortunately suffered with 2 days of heat stroke. I have never had this before. Not even when I worked in places like the Carribean or Bahamas. Needless to say, I was rather poorly. But glad I had finished the hardest event so far, and it seemed like the run of bad luck was over…. I was wrong.

After recovering, my footplate broke again. I called Invacare as always, who are responsible for wheelchair maintenance. Unfortunately the woman I dealt with was, I’m guessing having a bad month. She was very uncaring, to put it mildly. I eneded up with 17 days in total waiting for a footplate. Being told engineers would be coming out, so having to not train on those days, then they wouldn’t turn up. Being shouted at down the phone. It was truly despicable. By the time one eventually arrived, I had had to purchase one of my own, which was super heavy at 5kg, and was over £250 out of pocket. A footplate for me is not just somewhere I pop muly remaining foot, but it is where my stump board attaches. I cannot have my stump dangling at all or it sets off a crps flare. So needless to say, I suffered alot of flares, and considerable extra pain because of this. I had a footplate break in the past, and a man and replacement came out that very day! But not that time. But anyway, it worked out in the end as you will soon learn with my next post. Plus that big sponsor I said about… I am now very proud to be sponsored by Cartridges Law. A local law firm, who are incredible. They have been absolutely wonderful getting my challenges out there, and we have lots of plans in the coming months to do more.