A Good Plodder On-er

So as the more astute of you may have gathered by the title and picture (taken at Manchester Piccadilly station) I am not running. I have not run since my initial appointment with the physio and things have not improved. I was given various options but the one that was likely to get me running soonest was an MRI to rule out a stress fracture.

It was my birthday recently and not being able to run was a bit of a downer. Fortunately my son came home for a couple nights and we went out for lunch on the Sunday, me my husband my daughter and my son and of course Mr B our big fluffy dog. There were candles on the table which were obviously put out for people to play with. My family were more tolerant of my candle playing than usual (they have been known to blow a candle out at a restaurant to stop me playing with it) and I managed to make my wax cubes without burning myself.

It has not been great not being able to run. I also managed to book 3 gym classes and not show up so I am currently banned from going. I only remember this happening once (when I forgot) but I can believe I managed it the other times too. I got a message saying to contact the gym but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it. The less I do the less I want to do and I get scared that I won’t have the motivation to start running again. Running helps me enormously but it is also a lot of effort and not running slowly takes away the motivation to run.

I also found out in the last week that I am losing the support of Community Mental Health services as there is going to be the loss of a staff member. I have had excellent support over the last few months which is a double edged sword as I will miss it more acutely. I understand time and staff are under resourced and priorities have to be made but the timing is unlucky.

We are also under resourced for staff and therefore time and so pressures at work are mounting. I just worked a really busy weekend but I do prefer weekend work with less people in the building and knowing what is going on with all the patients. It is also a great distraction as there would have been no time for running anyway.

Today I had my MRI. It was in a hospital about an hour away and I had a staff meeting first. I went to the staff meeting and found that it had changed to tomorrow (actually not my fault for once!). I then decided to head off to the hospital from work anyway as I could then be sure I would not be late. I drove to the hospital with no misadventure and decided to park a 10min walk away to avoid car parking fees. I was over an hour early so I sat in my car, drank Pepsi Max and listened to my podcasts. I left half an hour to get to my appointment which I thought would be totally adequate. Half way I realised that I had left the form I was supposed to bring in the car. I still had enough time but was starting to worry so started to run back to the car. It hurt, I decided to walk again. I had my form and headed to the hospital. In the information pack they had indicated exactly where the MRI unit was but I had just assumed I would be able to find it. It was not that easy. Hospital information sent me the right way but I kept going off route and trying all sorts of doors that were locked or leading the wrong way. I finally rushed into the reception of the MRI 2 mins after I was supposed to be there. I still don’t really understand the letter. It said my appointment was 1.15pm but then to arrive 15mins early. I made a big point of changing the appointment time in my online calendar to 1pm and still am confused why it was worded like that. Surely there are many people out there like me who would check the appointment time last minute. Maybe they just don’t want people moaning they don’t actually go into the machine until 15mins after the time on the letter but it seemed odd to me. I was desperate for the loo at this point due to my excess Pepsi Max consumption but was relieved I was allowed to go before we started.

I then had to lie still for 20-30 mins in a strange environment with big clangy noises. It could have been a lot worse, at least it was my foot not my head. I had earplugs and headphones and a button to push for help. I managed to keep still by going somewhere else in my head, pinching myself, counting down the seconds and looking at the picture of a tree and the sky on the ceiling. It would have been great to have a countdown clock of how far we were along but at least it is now over. I have a wait of three days for results and hopefully it will show no fracture so I can start running again. I keep getting e mails about my next ultra which is only 9 weeks away. Maybe this is a bit ambitious but I am trying to keep optimistic.