Extreme Knitting Redhead: Sky 22 & my last 20 miler

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sky 22 & my last 20 miler

Oh my I'm glad my last 20 miler is out of the way! Sometimes you have a run where nothing seems to go right and this was one of them. It started when I got out of bed and the wind was blowing a gale and there was driving rain. This put me into the wrong frame of mind immediately but by the time I went out it had stopped raining and the wind wasn't as bad.

I seemed to have been engulfed by a wave lethargy and I just trudged onwards rather than with a spring in my step. Then it rained and the wind became stronger. That certainly didn't help my mood. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out and it was really hot so that gave me something else to grumble about!

It was a real struggle right until I reached around 14 miles and then everything seemed better and I was fine.

Oh the joys of long distance running!

Here are the photos from yesterday.
This photo was taken around 6:15am at the front of the house.

This was taken at the same time but at the back of the house across the horses' field. I liked the apricot glow on the trees.

Although it started well, the day was dreary and wet again so it was no surprise that we didn't have anything decent to watch when I took this final photo of the day at 7:15pm

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.