October 6th, 1984 was the day that led to me being told I'd never walk again, then after 5 months in plaster and on crutches, leaning to walk again. But now I run.
Why? I raced karts and had a double end-over-end flip crash landing on and smashing my left ankle. The injury seemed quite straightforward but after a month the consultant realised I had damaged the blood supply to my foot meaning my toenails weren’t growing and, more importantly, the breaks weren’t healing. Many tests followed but all that could be done was wait and hope. Amazingly, my body fixed itself by re-creating the fine blood supply and I eventually came out of plaster ... missing out the “walking plaster” stage as I was already (without permission) walking on the existing cast and, err, riding a bike! Just the sort of bonkers thing I do!
Why? I raced karts and had a double end-over-end flip crash landing on and smashing my left ankle. The injury seemed quite straightforward but after a month the consultant realised I had damaged the blood supply to my foot meaning my toenails weren’t growing and, more importantly, the breaks weren’t healing. Many tests followed but all that could be done was wait and hope. Amazingly, my body fixed itself by re-creating the fine blood supply and I eventually came out of plaster ... missing out the “walking plaster” stage as I was already (without permission) walking on the existing cast and, err, riding a bike! Just the sort of bonkers thing I do!
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So, walking ... things changed from “...you should be able to keep your foot but not walk on it” to “...you’ll need to learn to walk again” (for which I was given absolutely no help by the hospital!). I taught myself. I fell over a lot but got mobile again but it took me months to be able to walk down a flight of stairs facing forward. Now the mantra was “...you mustn’t run, ever!”. So I didn’t for far too many years as I was so pleased to be able to have a foot and to be able to walk. I followed the warnings for some 28 years, and what a waste of running time that was.
The catalyst for change was meeting my partner, Debs, in 2012 and as we coloured in the details of our past lives running came up (she’d run half marathons before) so we decided to start running together. We did, and I entered us for the Fleet Half marathon just 4 months ahead to give us some focus. Bonkers!
Away from running I am a 52 year old Dad with two daughters at UNI, a kart racing motorsport nut and a management consultant working long, pretty stressful hours and living in North Hants. Now I am a runner too! Also, entirely against expectation, I am the Chairman of a running club (Sherfield Park Runners) that Debs and I started in April 2013 ... but more of that in another post.
Over some upcoming posts I’ll take you through my inspirations; the running club; run streaks; and, into my training.
Training? Yes, this year has been based round 5 half marathons (Reading, Fleet, Edinburgh, Bristol and Basingstoke), lots of 10Ks and 5Ks (love parkrun in Basingstoke and as a “tourist”) and various trails including in a team of 8 at this year’s fabulously wet and muddy Endure24 where my contribution was five, 5 mile laps. I am constantly being told I am bonkers especially when I grab a new challenge, often coming from when someone says “...you can’t” or “...you are too old”. This applies even more with my 2015 running plans ... a first marathon (planned to be VMLM2015) and straight on to do Endure24 again BUT this time as a SOLO as my first Ultra Marathon!
My summer reading has been Ultra marathon books from Ira Rainey, Dean Karnazes, Chris MacDougall and Byron Powell, and tapping into some great Ultra marathon groups for info.
Bonkers!
Ultra!
Hence...ULTRABONKERS
Anyone who knows Mark knows he'll succeed through sheer bloody-mindedness and determination. Looking forward to more ultra bonkers blogs!!
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