Benny's Myeloma Diary

Mile 36 – Wet and cold but easy and no hills. At bigger races there will be photographers doing their best to snap you as you are running, then sell you copies afterwards. Sometimes they are hiding around corners, so, adding to the stress of the race, you need to be on constant lookout: you will want to fix your hair and find a smile so you look as if you are enjoying yourself. I’m quite pleased with this snap, taken on a winter half marathon over the Downs, where the mud and blood gives it a faintly heroic feel, even though the smile isn’t that convincing. Obviously, the photographers…

Mile 36 – Nice flat mile, feeling stronger towards the end. It is hard to fit in all those training runs, especially for younger runners, holding down a job and perhaps looking after children. In the past I squeezed many of my runs in early in the morning, before the sun was up. (This last week provided ideal conditions for that, with the waning moon giving plenty of illumination on the unlit country lanes around here.) When the boys used to go to swimming club, I would drop them off and go for a jog, and try to be back in time to pick them up; or when I was…

Mile 35 – another quiet and very wet mile. Recovery runs are built into the marathon training programme, after the harder sessions. The idea is to keep active, continue to work towards the mileage targets, but exercise at a far lower intensity. If you follow the detailed recommendations, which will specify a maximum heart rate, you may feel as if you are doing little more than a brisk walk, but that is the idea. Your body really does need to recover from the stresses that you put on it in those hard long runs. The difficult thing is to avoid the temptation to run faster: you can’t help feeling that…

Mile 34 – Very slow. After an interruption to the usual running routine, e.g. due to injury, it is sometimes hard to develop the habit again. It seems like a chore rather than a treat.  Being part of a club can help, and entering a race might trigger that competitive urge (not necessarily to win it but to at least be ahead of someone who usually finishes in a similar position to you). When the bug comes back, all the fun returns to your life! I’ll start with some thanks. Firstly, to Sue for writing last week’s description of events from her point of view. As Jo pointed out, she…

Mile 33 – Familiar trails. As a spectator looking out for friends, the experience can be mesmerising, with a sea of thousands of faces coming towards you. Is that them? Have you missed them? If the runner is wearing something distinctive, perhaps a club shirt, that might help you spot them in the distance. Nowadays the bigger marathons have apps, letting you see where runners are on the course and know when to expect them, so you can go and buy yourself a coffee. It is also fun watching how other runners get on, looking at the different running styles, and marvelling at how the elite runners can keep up…

Miles 31 and 32 – As tough as it gets. Way back at mile four I mentioned that our bodies store roughly 2,000 calories, which are burned at about 100 calories per mile while running, leaving nothing after 20 miles, except for extra calories taken on during the race. The empty feeling of reaching the wall is different for different runners. The elite will have trained enough to barely notice it, but for the likes of me it was usually fatigue, cramp and significantly slowing my pace. I always tried to keep shuffling along, though, and eventually I’d get through it and start to feel better. Just as the Hollywood…

Mile 30 – Some of the biggest hills so far, then a quiet spell, waiting to see what is around the corner. Long distance races generally require a great deal of organisational manpower: setting out the course direction arrows, handing out food and water, directing runners to go the right way, and cheering them on. Even the biggest races rely on volunteers for these jobs. So, as you make your way round, be polite and say thank you, even when you are feeling at your worst. Without the marshals, the race couldn’t go ahead. I hope I don’t cause offence with this analogy: healthcare workers are highly trained professionals while…

Mile 29 – Nice smooth downhill, but I seemed to find it rather unstable. It’s normal to wake up early on race day, to worry over your kit bag, to make sure your phone and watch are charged. The nerves can be with you right up to the start line, and, who knows, perhaps the adrenaline helps a runner’s performance. Monday morning and what might be my last decent bike ride for a while; a chatty visit to The Cabin at Berrett’s Farm in Henfield, with its splendid view. I was a tad nervous before setting out, worried about my low red blood cell count and whether it would leave…

Mile 28 – I don’t think any of us expected this mile to be so hot. I first heard the term years ago, after a visit to the GP. The secretary called to say that the doctor had written a note on some test results, something in Latin, about my heart, and I had better call in at the surgery. I dropped everything at work and was there like a shot, only to be told not to worry, it just meant I did plenty of exercise. Sinus bradycardia is the medical term for a slow resting heart rate, below 60 beats per minute. I’m not a medical expert, but as…

Mile 27 – There were some hills, but I seemed to have the wind behind me. There are usually some goodie bags waiting for you at the finish line of a race. Some of the best I’ve known had chocolate bars, but by far the worst was what I thought was chocolate, but turned out to be soap. Bananas are a staple, you always get those, I suppose you might need to replace some potassium. Last week I left you with a couple of cliffhangers – how would the G-CSF injections leave me feeling, and how would I cope with apheresis? The G-CSF instructions came with a long list of…