Covid19 and Autoimmune Disease.

Welcome to the new normal.

The world has changed so much in the last three to four months who would have predicted it? 2020 is most certainly not the best of years so far.

This blog was to chart my training progress for Ironman Portugal in September but even that has been scuppered. So this blog is just a bit of a chat about managing the last number of months, staying positive and what I am up to really. 

It's been tough at times for all with Lock-down but overall I think we in Ireland mainly have managed the upheaval quite well. 

But don't get me wrong my taught's go out to those who have lost a loved ones to this virus or those who have lost jobs or have businesses and who are struggling it must be so so stressful.

Stress has been something I think we can all associate with at some point during this pandemic. It has not been easy, stress of health, employment, kids, parents, being stuck indoors it's all alien to us and it was forced upon us so quick no real time to get our heads around it.

I was stressed a bit at the beginning, just trying to get my head around what was happening and how we as a family and even just personally would manage, I am a creature of habit, even if that is getting up and going to work and that sudden change in lifestyle took a bit of getting used to.

But I soon decided to embrace the change, there was nothing I could do to change what we were and were not allowed to do so why get stressed about it. 

I was getting upset and annoyed looking at social media when I decided to just remove myself from commenting too much on what others were doing. 

Society will always have the percentage of people who think they are different and the so called rules do not apply to them. This was frustrating me to start with but after a bad rant day I just felt feck it I am not getting stressed. 

If these people want to do what they want they certainly were not going to read or listen to my views on their behavior.

Since then I read and laugh at Donald Trump and some of the folks in England too. There are no words really to best describe Trump. I don't get political so I won't say much except that checking Twitter every morning is now entertainment. And how the English government can just lie over the Dominic Cummings story is quite unreal to be honest. Problem is they have lost any type of trust the people had in them. I just hope there is not a huge second wave due to it. 

So I decided to just stick to worrying about myself and my family and made sure we were all doing ok.

The kids I have to say were great, this must be so so hard for the kids, they missed out on so many things, school things, social events, sporting things and more. But they accepted it and got on with whatever they were allowed to under the restrictions. I am very proud of how my kids managed this whole thing.

As for my illnesses, well they were ok, I have come off my infusion now and moved to my daily injections so that was fine no hospital visits needed. 

I did need my blood out though, I was getting fatigued and grumpy a good sign of needing the pint of blood taken for my Haemochromotosis.

I tried a few times to get through to the hospital but the nurse who takes my blood but she was moved to the ICU to treat covid patients.

Eventually I got contacted and offered an appointment, which I jumped at. So got the blood out and all went fine, I was not nervous going to the hospital as it was in the normal room. 

I wore my mask and made sure to use the sanitizers and stuff, I was the only person there and was in and out in 20 mins. About two days later that treatment started to kick in and I began feeling better.

Other than that, I have tried to be as stress free as possible, I exercise daily and the weather has been amazing so I am trying to get as much sun as I can.

We cancelled our planned holiday to Greece in August which was really hard and disappointing but again reality check, so we made a decision to cancel. We don't know when we will get a vacation or if we will this remains up in the air. 

I was due to go to Portugal in September for Ironman, this is not going to happen but if things are ok I may still go over as the flight is paid. 

I know it's been hard on other people too, some people need to see their consultants and they cannot and not just for arthritic conditions but cancer treatments, smear testing and other types of conditions there are people in a lot of pain and discomfort and there is very little that can be done right now for them which is awful, but when you weight up the reason why, it's a bit stark really.

I am considered high risk due to my inflammatory arthritis and because my treatment effectively suppresses my immune system so I do have to be extra careful and I have been and will continue to be.

This week we started Phase 2 plus of restriction lifting where more shops and things are allowed to reopen. Hopefully this will go well and we don't get a big rise in new cases. I feel that people do think that this virus has gone away but it has not and won't be gone for quite a while in my view.

I also think we need to respect and remember it has been different for everyone, while there has been restrictions and a lock-down in place people have had totally different experiences to this pandemic.

I know a number of front line workers who for these people the last three or four months have been arguably the busiest they have ever been with the added risk of getting sick and or passing it to their family. The levels of stress for these people has been massive.

I have seen it first hand my sister in law is a ICU nurse and speaking with her there has been harrowing and sad stories.

Another friend of mine who I do a lot of training with Sandra is a nurse and had very similar sad and harrowing stories from her too.

We were able to meet up last weekend for the 1st time and have a socially distanced run, chat and coffee.

Hospital staff have gone through hell, similar to a war and the stress on them is massive so my thoughts go out to them and we should try help as much as we can if you know anyone in that situation, just check up on them, see if they are alright or need anything.

Their life is totally different and their experience of Covid is totally different to others.

So overall for me its been ok. I would say I am lucky, my work has not been effected except I now work from home. I have set up in the playroom and I am able to do my full work from here.

The great thing is obviously the commute or lack of it. This is brilliant part for me. It gives me back hours to my week that I would normally lose travelling into and from the office.

I really do like just logging off for the day and ..being home although I do notice I am doing slightly more time working.

From the start of working from home I made a decision not to have that many lie in's as I know I would get lazy quick. I also like training in the morning time.

When I was working in the office I would be in early to get a spin class or a run done before starting work.

So I consciously decided to keep that up and three times a week I get up early and head out for a run before starting my work day.

I really enjoy it actually and have found a number of new routes around my village that I did not know existed and just to get out and run about early before people are up and out is nice.

The other two days, well I do lie in. I suppose it's all a balance and taking advantage of circumstances.

When I was commuting I found that by the end of the week, I was tired in fact knackered. The early mornings and training was taking it's toll and I was using the weekends to recharge only for the same thing the following week and so on it was like groundhog day really.

I do like training at the weekends too and this was becoming harder to do as I was knackered, so now I am taking advantage of the current circumstances and having two mornings where I get up later and start work this then allows me to get a run or a bike session in on the weekend too which is great.

I tend to get a run in on a Saturday with my wife which is nice, she is a better runner than me so I am always playing catch up, which is good for me as it pushes me on.

The bad thing is that ALL my planned races have been cancelled. I deferred my Ironman 70.3 Portugal race to October 2021.

The hardest thing for me at the moment is trying to stay motivated to train, getting up on a Wednesday morning to go running is a little harder as the weeks pass as I have no real goal.

So I decided a few weeks ago to set a target for myself to run, walk or crawl 100k (or more) for each summer month of June,July and August. I may even get myself a reward of tee shirts for each one completed for the laugh.

As running is my big weak thing I am trying to improve but I also want to try improve my bike too. The bike has been hard as the 5k restrictions meant I could not really get out too much on the bike.

This restriction has now lifted to 20k so this will open up the opportunity for me to get more spins on the bike from now on.

I don't have a turbo and this swift thing really doesn't interest me too much I just prefer to get out in the air and on the road.

My Triathlon club did a run race, the idea was you recorded how far you could run for 19 minutes. Team were split odds and evens by birth-date. It was tough and unfortunately my turn was two days post my bloods out and I felt really heavy and just ran out of steam very quick. 

I managed 3.08kms I was disappointed but it was what it was on the day. Others were amazing, some people doing more than 5kms in 19mins..not sure I'd do that on a bike let alone running. 

By the end of it the two teams were only separated by 300 meters or something like that. We won by the way go team Odds !!

The next challenge is a plank challenge.. I am a team captain with 3 team members we have to plank for as long as we can as a team, we go head to head with another team and it's a knockout competition, we had to submit initial test time I managed 3 mins 01 sec.. which is ok for me.

So let's see how this challenge will go its all a bit of fun and to get us through some odd times.

We would normally be into the triathlon season by now, but it's not normal it's 2020.

I am 24kms into my 100km for the month of June with a few more runs planned for this week so for now this will be my focus.

If your struggling or finding it tough, I would think it's normal, try not be too hard on yourself, try get out for walks or runs if you can, lot's of people have taken up the couch to 5k maybe it's something you can think about. 

Hopefully the restrictions will continue to relax over the coming weeks and things may get back to a new normal.

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy.

Ken. 

February / March 2020 - Training Blog - Update @TheArthriticTriathelete (instagram)

So I Started this a few weeks ago before all this Covid19 madness really hit home.

It has taken me a few weeks I suppose to get my head around what is currently happening in the world at the moment so I wanted to leave writing this blog a little bit.

I hope that it is a little more informative, less in your face and I suppose I hope a little bit of a break for those who read it from the Covid 19 reality we are all now facing on a day to day basis.

So here goes hope you enjoy.

Wow - are you like me, thinking January was like 18 weeks long and February 3 weeks?

That was my original opening line; it's now March 9th and the day of the week seems to have just blended into Morning, Evening and Night.

There is no Monday, Tuesday; Wednesday and so on they have been replaced with "Day".

I think it's safe to say 2020 has been shit so far (please feel free to use other words to describe it) but casting my mind back to a January that seemed to last three months and where everyone was depressed and pissed off and move into February a month of utter shite weather, every weekend was a storm and now this, March and April Lockdown months with at present no real end in sight.

The 1st few weeks of March were ok when the rain and wind decided to give us a break at the weekends.

People were starting to come out from under rocks and other mad places, smiles were beginning to filter back and training was starting in earnest for the season that lay ahead.

But within weeks all this has changed dramatically, and not for the best unfortunately.

So for me personally February did bring some ray of light as I was in a pretty bad space in January. There was a lot going on for me with changing my Arthritis drug to a new daily injection which had a pretty hard effect on me both physically and I do think contributed to a bit of depression too.

February I got back on the bike a few times between the rain showers and wind and slowly started to get my arse back in gear.

My mood was lifting and I was starting to enjoy my training again and beginning to look forward to the season.

So that was pretty much February; a new start it went quick and suddenly it was March and the brighter mornings and longer evenings.

This I really like, it was starting to be bright by the time I was getting into the office and even when I was leaving for the day it was bright. Sad as this may sound it does wonders for my mood.

I made a few changes too in March to my training too. I found I just was not getting to the pool and not really getting to the gym.

I really was struggling to try fit in all aspects of training and it was a bit of a stressor for me. The pool was a bit of a frustration as it was either packed all the time or closed for repairs.

So I decided to concentrate on my bike, running and strength and conditioning.

I quit the gym I was in and took membership to the gym we have in work where I can take various classes ranging from Spin, abs n core, yoga, Pilates, stretching, kettle bells and a few others.

I started to do 2 to 3 classes of spinning before work; I was also doing Abs and core, and doing Pilates on a Thursday evening with my Triathlon club.

I have to say I was kind of putting off doing Pilates as I am genuinely like the tin man in my flexibility, no flexibility at all.

I was scared I suppose and I didn't want to injure myself too the last time I did a class like this I hurt a nerve in my neck and I am now hesitant to do something new like this.

But I did make a promise to myself to try new things and try to get stronger this year so I decided Pilates is something I would try out.

I have to say firstly I really enjoy it it's a bit of fun, I find it relaxing too and I find I can do most of the exercises (much to my surprise).

Debbie, the trainer knows of my health and physical issues and is careful for me not to do anything which I can't do and she will show me other exercises to replace the one's I cannot do which is brilliant.

After 3 classes I absolutely could notice a difference so if anyone is doubtful of doing something like Pilates, take it from me don't be, give it a shot I think you will find it really helpful.

Just a small example, one of my Arthritic symptoms would be a sore and stiff lower back certainly first thing in the mornings but also as the day goes on too as I would be more fatigued.

Just after a few sessions I noted my back a lot better, less sore and less stiff it was moving more free in the morning time.

Another benefit was in my running my back was not as fatigued and niggly when I was running too. So give it a go you won't be unhappy.

I sat down and picked the races I wanted to do and was going to start to enter them from March as payday came (this is an expense sport if I have not mentioned that before).

MARCH --- COIDV19

So the start of March was going great for a while, I got my bike serviced in February and it sat in my shed looking all lovely and speedy for weeks as every weekend was a washout and I could not get out. I got new wheels put on too; I got them for my birthday last September and eventually got around to getting them on.

I have to say what a difference the new wheels make. I would say I averaged between 3 to 5kph more without any additional effort.

I am not a huge expert on parts for bikes and stuff but even I could feel that improvement so if you're thinking of an upgrade to the bike maybe start with the wheel set.

Training wise I got back to doing stuff daily or nearly daily I wrote out my plan for the week on a Monday and tried to stick to it.

I decided not to overload myself with training just get back into the swing of being active for some amount of time daily and also to take rest days.

Something I can't really account for is illness during training I am learning to deal better with it and not to pressure myself to much in catching up.

I was chatting with someone the other day and was saying that due to my medical issues that I would double the amount of time for me to get fit compared to a normal healthy person.

This is just to take account of days I need to rest or do nothing or get sick. This in itself is a challenge, the stop start nature of my training unfortunately this is something I can't do a huge amount to control just all part of trying to get IronMan fit and living with my arthritis and HA.

I think the main thing about February and into March was getting a bit of the mojo back and to get back to proper exercise.

SO, after a good month or so enter COVID19, what can I say really about this that has not already been said.

It's a monster, it's very very scary. All the restrictions seemed to happen quite rapid too. For me it was Tuesday 10th of March.

I met up with a friend of mine for a jog before work, this was looking to be a weekly meet up, it was the 1st morning we went for a run and coming back into the office I met the head of my department who said he would be sending me home by lunch.

He knows about my Arthritis and I would come under the high risk banner. As it turned out I stayed the day. It was the weirdest day in an office, teams were being split up half would move over to the other side of the building, we were not allowed go to lunch with people on the team , no walks at lunch , no socialising nothing like that all pretty serious stuff.

There was a lady who's leaving drinks were planned for the Thursday, well that was like nope not happening, see ya.

So I began working from home from Wednesday the 11th, not knowing when I would be back in the office and right now I still don't we suspect it could be mid-May but that's only a guess.

Over the coming days the whole office shut up and everyone started working from home. I am very lucky I work as a Business Analyst and my project is still going ahead. I am very conscious that so many people have lost their jobs.

My own wife has lost her job, she works part time for an even management company and within weeks that whole section of industry just stopped. Nothing was happening; all companies everyone just blanket cancellations and her boss just can't keep her on doing nothing.

My attitude is do as your told and the quicker everyone does comply then the sooner we will be all over this mess.

I decided though, training wise to try my best to keep as fit as I can so I kept my usual time of getting up and I started running in the mornings before work maybe 3 times a week, I also got out on the bike for an hour too.

This was until the bloody virus decided to visit the house.

My wife started to feel sick in the afternoon of Paddy's day, then my youngest daughter too. So this meant they were in self-isolation. Initially our GP had my wife on the list to be tested this was up until they changed the criteria and as she was not burning up she was removed. Yet she still showed about 5 other symptoms.

Luckily, it was only mild next my son and eldest daughter felt sick too, I was actually feeling pretty good, I remember being out on a run on the morning of Wednesday 25th March and my chest was totally clear (I had a lingering cold for a few weeks) but after that run I was great..the next afternoon it hit me from nowhere.

All of sudden my chest sounded like I smoked 100 a day for years, shivers, chough, aches, headaches and totally no energy. I was wrecked.

I worked Friday just about, and spent the weekend not feeling good, Friday night was awful and the weekend was not great. I didn't work Monday either just stayed in bed, the GP would not get me tested even though I was immune suppressed because of my arthritis drug but again I was not burning up so he told me if I was worse in 48 hours call him back.

Thankfully I started feeling a little better by the Wednesday, and apart from one day this week I've been feeling better each day.

I have not been out for 2 weeks now and can't wait to get back doing something outside. I am really looking forward to getting back to my morning jogs. I hope to get for a run on Good Friday or over the Easter weekend and build it back again slowly.

I am lucky that I can do my runs and keep in the 2km distance limit, which is fine but the bike is out, until I remembered I have a really old turbo in the shed.

It's not a fancy ZSWIFT one or anything like that I can't log into any races but I can do 30 or 40 mins on the decking which is fine.

I have also been doing sessions during the day, each hour of my working day I do planks, press ups, crunches, hip raises and squats. This breaks up my day, allows me to get a good few sets done and keep me sane.

I could go one about lots of things and people and peoples actions during the last four or five weeks but I am not going to. Everyone has their views on what to do, who has done what, if it's the right thing or not.

My view and concern is my family, my friends of which a number are on the front line and are risking their lives every day.

I hear stories that are not out in the news or public, nurses going way way way beyond what is needed or required. I know of nurses not being able to sit at home on their day off and who go into ICU to help out just because that's who they are. This to me is being a true hero a warrior.

We train to do IronMan races or endurance races, what the doctors, nurses, care staff, and all front line workers are doing now makes our achievements pale into insignificance. They have my full and total admiration and respect.

What does annoy me is the ignorant percentage of people who do not see this or understand it and think they are different to everyone else. I know in society there will always be this percentage of people but in this time it's just very clear who they are. Unfortunately nothing I can do or say or write will change any of that we just need to stay strong, stay safe, stay healthy. This will pass, there will be a new new, a new normal life will be different.

Thanks to everyone on social media who is trying to entertain and keep people going it's great, I have never in my life seen so many workout video's or you tube links.. my god.. But people are doing it for a good reason, you never know I may even get involved soon to show you what I am doing at home and maybe get people off their arse and doing a bit. If I can do it.. Anyone can and if it takes a your tube video, well maybe just maybe.

So that's it.. That is the last few months in a nutshell.. All my races are off as of now except my big one in Portugal in September so far.

I will still train as if it is on, it could well be my only race this year but I will be delighted to get it in. I am not stressing about it tbh there is nothing I can do the people organising it have a difficult task so I will leave it up to them and also just see how this whole virus plays out.

Until the next time, stay safe and healthy and thanks for the read, if you liked it please help promote it out on your social media.

Ken - TheArthriticTriathlete.

Hi, as with all my blogs I will write honestly, sharing my up's and downs for the month so that people reading get a good perspective on my training for Septembers Ironman 70.3 in Portugal.

So; in the words of Hugh Grant at the start of Four Weddings and a Funeral "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck".

This is what the start of January was like for me.

Why you ask well I hope you're asking.

Because I had great plans and ideas to start my proper Ironman training but instead I got sick.

I was annoyed and disappointed, I worked hard in the last few months of 2019 to get fitter, lose a little weight (that went all back on over Christmas, but hey is that not what Christmas is all about).

I had planned to start the New Year with a bang and hit the ground running (literally) and keep going.

Unfortunately this did not happen.

Christmas was good, I took a week off went over to Connemara in the West of Ireland for a few days with the family and chilled in truth I needed it I was tired my body was tired as was my mind I needed to recharge in prep for 2020.

I started a new drug for my arthritis the week before Christmas, this is a drug that you inject daily and while it sounds bad it's actually fine really, it doesn't hurt it's such a fine needle that you don't actually notice it.

I used to inject a different medication a number of years ago using what they call a pen type thing that you press the top and it did it all for you, but this was really sore at times and it becomes really hard to do this to you.

I used to stand there for over 10 minutes and could not bring myself to press the button. It's amazing the control your mind has. I used to have to get my wife or kids to press it for me. I didn't like it and starting this I was remembering this but after the 1st needle it was totally different and I am fine doing the injection.

So this new drug is replacing my 6 week infusion (no more of me posting photos of me sitting there with a needle out of my arm you will all be glad to hear).

All seemed ok but after a week or so the sites I was injecting were getting very red and itchy and sore.

My stomach was a bit swollen and as the days passed the redness was spreading until my whole lower stomach was one big swollen red bruise and it was getting sorer too and I was not feeling too good either.

So on the 3rd of Jan I needed to head to the GP who confirmed Cellulitis again, this is my third time of getting this in the last 6 months. So more antibiotics, I was also to continue with my injections too which was a little uncomfortable and training then took a bit of a back seat for the next week as I could not swim, and running was kind of sore on my stomach I felt I just lost my mojo too, the enthusiasm I usually have just was not there I was very grumpy (Sorry Joan-my wife, who has to put up with me).

I was a bit worried and quick post to an arthritis Facebook page I am a member of to ask about my drug and the injections and get told that this was a normal enough reaction that it takes four to six weeks for the body to get used to the daily injections.

This helped me be less worried, I also spoke with the hospital and they wanted me to stop but having just completed week three I didn't want to stop and waste the time that the drug was being used and building in my body, so I decided to see what happens over the coming weeks.

This is the major problem with moving from one drug to a new one for my arthritis, the side effects, complications, body reactions, mind reactions etc.

Added to all this I needed to start this new drug just as the effects of the old drug were wearing off leaving a window of about 6 maybe 8 weeks before I start to feel the positive effects of this new drug.

This meant that all over Christmas and into early January I was in a lot of pain and discomfort, it was such an effort again just to get out of bed again I totally felt like I had regressed a huge amount.

This really annoyed me, I just could not get myself up and at it really, and enjoy being out training like I used to. My normal training in the morning has stalled I just don't have the energy; I was finding way too many excuses not to train.

My sleeping patterns are totally messed up, a lot of times I am going to bed early and tired and not sleeping I am finding myself still awake at 1 or 2 am and then drift off only to be woken by my alarm at 6.10am getting up knackered with the whole day in front of me and this accumulates as the week goes on and by the end of the week I am shattered, trying to use the weekend to recharge and do the same the following week.

I put the lost mojo and tiredness and mild depression down to the new drug and it being January too, the dark mornings and dark nights.

I know I suffer from this seasonal disorder thing a bit during this time of the year, to me these few months of winter it just seems to be one big long day.

Getting up in the dark, going to the office leaving in the evening in the dark. It's just bloody depressing. I have known this for the last number of years just doesn't get easier.

I also have Hemochromatosis and some of the side effects of this are also very similar to my arthritis. I went this morning to the hospital to get a pint of blood out and low and behold my levels had really changed since my last pint out in November, again another reason for feeling so lousy over the last three or four weeks. So got the pint out I should see an improvement soon, that's the idea anyhow.

But over the last few weeks have been forcing myself out at lunch times for a run, or at least a walk.

Last week I went back to the gym and did enjoy it but my god, I was out of the gym for a month and the DOMS pain from last week was like I was not doing stuff for years I was so sore for a few days.

I did sign up for my 1st Duathlon in April, so need to get training for that.

I have also planned out my races for the summer too; just need money now to book them.

This week I am heading back to the pool, I am not expecting much as again it's been maybe 4 or 5 weeks since my last swim, but the idea is to slowly get back and start building up the distance.

A friend of mine sent me a 16 week swim session course he is doing, so the plan is to start that in February once I have reacclimatised to the pool.

PS - Did 1,000meters yesterday in pool and really enjoyed being back swimming, it's a lovely stress reliever too will be back today too.

So that's all the moaning about my medication and stuff out of the way, roll onto the last week or so and all is not too bad.

Everything seems to have started to click and the injections seem to start taking effect I am not half as sore as I was in the first two weeks of January and also the injection sites are fine now and not red or itchy.

The body really is amazing in the way it gets used to things and adjusts. The second half of January is a bit more positive.

Last week I stuck to my training plan. In fact I trained six days running if you take my Saturday morning run, Sunday afternoon cycle, then trained Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and actually got up early Saturday and ran with my wife.

Running, I have run more in January than I have in years which I never saw that happen.

I got new trainers for Christmas and they are lovely, they have amazing cushioning so my ankles are not half as sore when I run.

I actually feel that I am making progress in my running, I do want to really try to improve this area this year, my wife and me go either to Parkrun or just run locally once or twice a week and I try to get out at lunch at least once a week.

I also paced a Parkrun that my triathlon club helped out at, they were looking for volunteers and I put up my hand expecting a marshal role or something but I was given the 35 minute pacing job. I really was not sure about it if truth be told.

I was really really nervous the week leading up to it all sorts of things were running though my head. My main worries were I am super self-conscious about my running and how I look, add to that I could have a no energy day and really struggle and what If I had to stop with pain in my ankles or something.

I was really going to pull out but there were other people going to be relying on me the pressure. Add to the fact that I had never paced in my life before I wasn't sure how to, my head was all over the shop.

A few people on twitter gave me some advice on this and this really helped.

I decided to give it a shot, I don't think there have been many pacers who have had a new hip and have Arthritis so I saw it as another challenge to overcome and complete.

In the end I had one of the best most comfortable 5k I've ever run, bringing the group in at 34.40.

20 seconds under my 35 minutes pacing target. I met some lovely people and had a great morning. I will definitely do this again. And I think it was one of the better jobs in the end as it was Baltic that morning and the timekeepers and marshals were all blue with the cold but I was lovely and warm so all turned out great in the end.

I also got back out on my bike twice over the weekends in January, the days were lovely and sunny and covered 25k each time. I will build my mileage on the bike over the coming weeks and months. I need to get my bike serviced and my new wheels put on hopefully that will make a nice difference to the bike. I will get back to cycling into work once the weather improves a little and it gets brighter.

One out of the blue moment during January was that I was sitting at home one evening and I got a PM on Facebook from a lady who took the time to thank me for helping to inspire her and her son who had Juvinile arthritis to run. Her son now is a super runner and takes on his 1st marathon in March. It was a interview I did for a national newspaper that inspired them to exercise and in her own words "changed his life". I got quite emotional it was lovely to get this message as it makes all this worthwhile. 

So as January comes to an end upon reflection it was a dodgy start with a better end, so let's hope to build the momentum and keep it going into February.

As always thanks for taking the time to read this and I'd love if you passed it onto to others to take a read.