OMG, I did it!!!
I’m still letting that sink in. For those who are interested inΒ my ‘story’, this time last year I’d just finished radiotherapy, was so weak and badly co-ordinated that I couldn’t even get out of bed to go to the bathroom on my own. I genuinely couldn’t walk, had been in a wheel chair for the past 2 months and when I tried moving around independently through therapy, it was the aid of a walking stick.
The Color Run is a 5K course which you are free to run, jump, walk or dance around – simply, there’s no expectation or judgement other than for participants to have fun and get messy (I got attacked by a particularly vicious thrower in the ‘yellow zone’ !)
My long-time friend, Michael and I were incredibly geared up to do the ‘run’ – and of course approached it as a walk – with 10,000 participants, I doubt many people could seriously have ran it. 5k is a perfect walking distance and it took about an hour to complete – we saw people who ran finishing before we’d even exited the start chute, which was a shame.
The atmosphere on the day was FANTASTIC. I was dreading there being so many people, but actually 10,000 people seriously behaved themselves, even when we all had to cram on to the Metrolink to get there. Londoners – lessons to be learnt from your Manchester friends. Not one complaint and everyone was kind and considerate to the needs of those around them (elderlies were offered seats etc).
We decided to walk back rather than take what I assume would have been a VERY messy packed Metrolink back in to town. Unwittingly, this walk was another 5K – so actually, I WALKED 10K
It wasn’t until I got home that I realised what a personal achievement this was. I entered for fun and as it was something that, brain cancer or not, I really wanted to do. When I take that in perspective with the past year and how far I’ve come, even though I still view my situation as a little shitty some times, even I can stop doing myself the disservice that I tend to give. Absolutely thrilled!!
At the start line, we met ‘Angel Man’ – as you can probably guess from those tight pants and muscles, we didn’t object to following him at the start. He had his Go Pro with him and he’s posted a YouTube of it – if you look at the start you can see Michael and I behind him π His real name is Joel Hicks and it seems from his schedule he enters practically every sort of Run/Race that he can – he is the founder of ‘Always With A Smile‘.
An absolutely brilliant day, and thanks to so many kind people out there, I managed to raise Β£227.50 including Gift Aid for The Brain Tumour Charity. I’m actually just Β£10 off my target (Β£190/Β£200 net) so if anyone is feeling especially generous…. π
Can’t wait to do The Electric Walk in the autumn!!
