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Saturday 29 August 2015

Another recovery run - Moughton from Horton - 8th August 2015

Okay so the 'recovery' from flipping pericarditis continues to not properly 'recover' but this week, having been suffering from hard core indigestion (almost certainly caused by the ibuprofen that I've been taking for the pericarditis), the doc told me to stop with the ibuprofen and take antacid tablets each day instead. And come Saturday 8th August I was feeling better than I had for a while and enjoyed a gorgeous run up and over Moughton from home with Hester and the dogs. In stunning weather too.

7.2 miles and 1,040 feet - route on strava

The hounds heading for the trig point on Moughton with Ingleborough on the skyline

To infinity and beyond!

Hazzer at Moughton trig

A bonny view

Yes the 'path' is a bit rocky

Teasel the weasel

A bugs eye view of Pen y Ghent

The hippos cooling off in the umbongo

The final run down to Horton

Monday 10 August 2015

A first effort at a recovery run - a shorty from Sedburgh - 1st August 2015

So my pericarditis didn't quite recover as I'd hoped..... My local GP had thought I'd have been back running after a week or so but, to be honest, and despite a big effort to try and run, my batteries were completely flat and the effects of the pericarditis were slow in going. I'd been set to run the Lakeland 100 on 24th/25th (and maybe a bit of 26th) July with Hester but I had to knock that on the head which was a big disappointment. I did go and support Hester though and she ran an absolute blinder, nailing the full 105 miles in 31 hours and 56 minutes and coming 83rd out of a field of 302 of which 209 finished. What a superstar!

On my 'dicky ticker' front though, basically I kept getting a sensation of my heart beating (a palpitation, although my heart beat was at normal speed and not fast) and this was especially so at night in bed. I also felt windy, a bit weird and very washed out. Even while watching the final few hours progress of Hester in the Lakeland 100 on the big screen at Coniston School, which was truly gripping, I felt totally crap (sorry Sunderland Strollers for not joining in with your gang in the hall but I was really struggling). I was also starting to worry that the problem might be something more complicated and it was hard to think about anything else but my flipping heart beating. So I continued to rest up and, after chatting to the doctor again, restarted taking anti-inflammatories again which seemed to help stall the heart palpitations. 

So on 1st August I managed to have a really fabulous 'comeback' run with Hester and the dogs from Sedburgh in a 4 mile triangle over Winder, Arant Haw and Crook. Even so I had a few heart beaty moments before the start and my chest didn't feel completely comfortable on the run either. It did feel like a step in the right direction though...

3.8 miles and 1,748 feet - route on Strava

Hester running really well.... considering the 105 miler the previous weekend

The Howgills are great

Hester feeling it 'a bit'

The scratters

And.... down!

Haz taking on water

It has to be one of the best hills to run down in the world!

Teasel gets a full on cuddle

Me dropping back down to Sedburgh

Ze pooches

Sunday 9 August 2015

The 3 Peaks - 5th July 2015 (my 3 peakus horribilus)

Annnnd.... it was the 3 Peaks yet again, this time for my July round, and 7th of the year, there to be ticked off. It was me, Hester, Sharon again from last week, and whole bunch of Hester's old running buddies from when she lived in Masham and ran with Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers. The weather wasn't too bad, well not too bad anyway until we hit Ingleborough with just 5.5 miles to go when some heavy rain swooped in, but we did have some other difficulties along the way. One of the runners Fran was feeling really dodgy at the bottom of Whernside (sick, woozy and light headed) and she decided to call it a day with Hester then going with Fran along the valley bottom to Chapel-le-Dale to hopefully meet up with us again for the final peak Ingleborough. It was a good decision for Fran to drop out too as she was quite badly sick (quoting Hester 'spewing all over the place') and, luckily enough, also managed to grab a lift with a couple at Chapel-le-Dale back to Horton (on the basis that she agreed not to be sick in their car).

I too had a problem. When I reached the top of Whernside I had a really weird aching feeling in my throat and chest, coupled with a still aching back and dodgy tummy that I'd been carrying with me since Scotland a week and a half before. Weird is the best word to describe it in that it didn't particularly hurt but equally didn't match up with any ache I'd ever had in my chest before. Anyway I bashed on and we all managed to finish, with Hester rejoining the pack at Chapel-le-Dale and with me, like the week before's 3 Peak run, feeling very tired and weary over the last half dozen miles.

Everyone came back to our house for tea and cake and all agreed it was a great outing. I though now felt sick and shivery and couldn't eat a thing.....

21.7 miles and 4,726 feet - route on Strava

Post Script

Playing on my mind just a little bit for the last 7 or 8 miles of the run was a super fit fell runner I knew who died of a cardiac arrest whilst in a fell race. And here's me with an aching chest and back and doing a 22 miler over three peaks! Obviously I got home okay but, after everyone had left and while Hester was at the shop, I checked NHS Choices and filled in a really simple questionnaire for chest and back pain. It quickly came back with the answer "call 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance". So, once Hester got home, I did...

The ambulance guys from Settle were soon on the scene and carried out a few checks and a few ECG's. The ECG results looked a bit odd and my pulse was high so they decided that what I had could be some sort of 'cardiac event' and decided to get me to Leeds General Infirmary who are their hospital of choice in such circumstances. They even tried to get the air ambulance in to take me there but, just my luck, (never having been on a helicopter before) they weren't available. Settle ambulance were brilliant though and I was speedily ambulance to LGI. Poor Hester was left behind to follow in her car and imagine all sorts of worst case scenarios.

When I got to LGI, an hour or so later, they were just amazing. A crack team was already waiting for my arrival and, before I knew it, I was all set for an angiogram and angioplasty if needed. They used some sort of amazing (CT?) scanner whilst inserting a thin wire up through a vein in my arm and all the way into my heart, all visible on screen. If I'd had a heart attack they could've inserted stents needed to widen any bunged up arteries there and then. Thankfully they didn't find any arteries narrow or bunged up enough to require stenting (and they even complimented me on the size of my heart) so it appeared that I hadn't had a heart attack. Phew!

Never-the-less I still had some sort of problem, I had a temperature and my chest and back still ached.  So I was trollied up to the cardiac ward, wired up to an ECG monitor and rigged up to an automatic blood pressure taking contraption. I also had some other tubes and wires attached but quite what they were I'm not sure. I had a blood sample taken (which eventually came back as fine), chest x-rays and, in the early hours of now Monday morning, a chap came round and gave my heart the full ultra sound treatment (an ECHO test) - great news again in that he gave my heart a big tick and confirmed that it was working perfectly. Hester, who having driven all the way to Leeds, waited patiently until about one in the morning to see me briefly and had then gone home was probably now asleep. I guess I almost certainly woke her up at about 4:30 am then with a text giving the good news.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, they diagnosed me with pericarditis which is a swelling of the sack that surrounds the heart and is often caused by a virus (such as a tummy bug or flu). Having arrived at the hospital late evening on Sunday, I was 'let free' at 6pm on Monday, after a stay of less than 24 hours. Apparently 5% of all A&E arrivals with suspected heart attacks actually have pericarditis. But blimey there were some very ill patients also on that cardiac ward...

All I had to do was take it easy for a few days, take anti-inflamatories and not do any strenuous exercise for a week and job's a good 'un. And I'd also had a complete heart health check up in the process.

So all was good, or so I thought....




The team on reaching the top of peak one, Pen y Ghent

Ribblehead Viaduct

The standard 'heading for Whernside but looking at Ingleborough' photo

At this point only Sharon could live with my 'pace'

The last haul up Whernside is a belter

Nicky crawling over the top

Lorraine and Sarah 'hurtling' up the side of Whernside

The survivors of the team at the top of peak 2, Whernside

Nearly at the top of Ingleborough

The top of Ingleborough just before the rain hit

Malham Tops - 28th June 2015

A beautiful Sunday evening trot out with Hester and the hounds, starting from the Tarn Foot car park not far from Malham Tarn. A cracker of a run followed by fabulous pub grub and a beer at the Lister Arms in Malham - whats not to like?

5 miles and 1,152 feet - route on Strava

Teasel sporting her action adventure harness

Heading down Ing Scar towards the top of Malham Cove

H and H

Hester and Harry couldn't live with Teasel's pace

Looking down towards Gordale Scar

Fountains Fell on the horizon

The scurvy crew

Teasel showing off her bouncing technique

The 3 Peaks - 27th June 2016

And my sequence of running the 3 Peaks each month during 2015 continued with June's outing just getting done in the nick of time. I ran with Sharon and Hester who seemed to natter away to each other all the way round, making it hard for me to get an occasional word (of wisdom) in sideways. 

Me and Hester had been on holiday in Scotland the week before where I'd picked up some kind of tummy bug and I also had a weird ache in the top of my back between my shoulder blades, which felt a bit strange too. Hmmm... I wonder what that's all about??

Anyway we got round in pretty fine fettle despite me struggling and feeling weary towards the end. Sharon, who's running the Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc at the end of August and Hester, who's running the Lakeland 100 (supposedly with me) at the end of July both breezed it of course.

21.9 miles and 5,585 feet - route on Strava

Shorty Sharon and Hester descending Pen y Ghent

Both lagging behind at this stage

Whernside ahoy!

Looking back towards Ingleborough on the climb up Whernside

At the trig on Ingleborough - Sharon standing on a rock to seem a bit bigger

The Gill Garth Gallop - 17th June 2016

This is a gorgeous low key evening fell race run from Gill Garth farm near Selside in Ribblesdale. Its 6.3 miles in length and a cracker of a route, with a long and fast run out to the foot of Park Fell, a stonking climb up to the trig point from there followed by a undulating ridge run all the way to the cairn on Simon Fell before plummeting off the side and whizzing back to Gill Garth. 

Unfortunately I set off at far too fast of a 'gallop' and was gasping for air ("blowing it out my arse" as my younger daughter would say) after the first quarter of a mile gradual climb from the start. I never really recovered from that although managed to hang in for the final 6 miles! My finishing time was a little slower than the same race last year and that was when I tore my achilles a mile and a half from the end and had to hobble home. I'm getting crapper for sure. Hester ran a great race and cruised home shortly after me.


6.3 miles and 1,496 feet - route on Strava

My cunning plan of racing off at the start..... didn't work and really, really hurt!

Hester having just descended Simon Fell behind

Making it look easy

Ze route