First and foremost sorry for taking so long to update my blog! I honestly forget that I have one. ANYWAYS its a New year so It is a new ME. I vow to be an active blogger. This entry is for Tyler who is always supportive.
In June of last year I took part in a charity walk called the heel and wheelathon. You can walk, run, cycle, rollerblade or hop with an eye patch if you want to. It is all for charity. A brilliant cause I may add as it is for Crohns, IBD and Collitis. When I first heard about it I was so excited and determined to train really hard and achieve a 5k jog. Tyler who is athletic and runs regularly was eager to get me involved. I also got advice from his sister who is an avid runner.
Not going to lie, I was pretty enthusiastic at first; I even quite enjoyed getting fit and getting some fresh air. Not being mellow dramatic or anything ( ok maybe a little ) but honestly sometimes i would rather curl up into a ball and die than start exercising again. But I was glad that I started and excited to get out from under the covers. Little fact - You know that if you train you can actually run to the end of the road and still have your lung intact. Now that’s a fact. See look I am getting poetic now.
Unfortunately 2 things happened that got in the way. One was my Crohns flare ups (JUST TYPICAL) I mean how selfish can my Crohns disease be. I am training to raise money to cure the damn thing and it will not let me. I think my disease is pretty comfy in my body and does not want to go anywhere. Also I do not think my body grasped which type of running I was aiming for. However, Tyler continued to train without me as one of us had to make an effort. Second issue was that it was my first Canadian summer. One of the hottest summers on record. Now as an Irish person I only have two mind frames. Either it rained too much today, or it didn’t rain enough. Irish people do not have tans, we just simply rust. The sun is an Irish mans kryptonite. Attempting to train in that heat was like asking the Simpsons not to be yellow. Its impossible ( see I said I wasn’t mellow dramatic) I never knew Canada could get so Hot. You could cook an egg on the tar pavement. (I saw it with my very own eyes )
So race day came around and I had little or no training. I had woken up with a twinge in my stomach and prayed that there would be no flare ups that day. Luckily it held off. Although to my relief it didn’t seem like it was very competitive. In fact it was quite the opposite. People had buggies (strollers for those across the pond) some people were in jeans and people were eating before the race. So you could pretty much tell that it was more of picnic party and at some point we would do a little walk.
When the race eventually started there was a speech from an 11 year old girl who had suffered with Crohns disease since she was eight years old. She had quite an aggressive form and spent over 6 months in hospital. She was pretty much the centre of the whole event and an inspiration. She had raised over 12 thousand dollars! Naturally she was chosen to cut the ribbon and lead the walk. As she cut the ribbon Tyler was like ok let’s go. Now everyone was walking and chatty and there was no one running as the girl was leading. That didn’t bother Tyler because he wanted to WIN. I asked him to wait a few minutes and let the really sick child who raised all this money at least have her moment. So he waited begrudgingly. After a minute or two the little girl decided to jog a little, after that there was no stopping him. We were off and ran straight past the girl who couldn’t really hold a pace.
I understand that when you are ill and unable to really move too quickly so i felt bad and asked if we could slow down. Nope it wasn’t happening. You could hear the little girl’s heart break as we went by. Tyler was over the moon because we were winning. I even noticed that even though we were running side by side Tyler seemed to be about two steps ahead of me. He was even competing with me! We were keeping a nice steady pace when some kids on bicycles were gaining on us. He left my side (which was technically a step ahead) in order to challenge a kid on a bike to the end of the race. He had sprinted pretty fast ad beat the kid. Tyler outran two kids in one day and he was pretty chuffed. Also the race did not end at the original finish line. It was supposed to but everyone just walked back to the picnic area where the food was being cooked. Technically Tyler was the only one who finished. So he won and was the only successful one to complete it. I guess it’s all for Charity.
Enthusiasm is always needed around sick people and there was no one there as enthusiastic as Tyler, even if it was about the winning.
