The worst week of my life

Not only does my left knee keep me from running, it seems my heart is having a bad spell!
Monday night before my usual coaching duty I warmed up with Dave E and could not believe it 0.65 miles in and bang, excruciating pain in my left knee. So back to square one and Robin Hood looks out of my league.

For the last couple of months I have noticed the tendency to utter the words 'oops got up to fast' and feel a touch dizzy.

Well early on Thursday morning I passed out after presumably going to the loo! I was taken by ambulance to Oldham Royal Hospital and one of the tests indicated a condition known as "postural hypotension" this is where your systolic blood pressure drops when sitting up from lying down or standing up. Mine drops around 20 which is enough to make you light headed at the best of times. I was later discharged as an outpatient from Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) and began immediately to rest and recuperate (my fall was bad enough!).

On Saturday morning I rolled out of bed feeling much better and proceeded to setup Oldham parkrun as usual, this week being dubious as there was a 'Dragon Boat race' in the park lake.

During a pre-event risk assessment, Sandra (one of our regular runners and volunteer) suggested that if too many vehicles were seen on the course, then cancel the run either before or during the race.
On the route a coffee van was using part of the path, the owner "Liam" turned out to be a heaton parkrunner!
He moved his signs to make the gap a bit wider, so on we continued.

I briefed the runners accordingly and set them on their way, sure enough after one lap Sandra reported far too much traffic, so I got on the radio and advised marshals to warn runners to stop and return to race HQ!
By 9:30 we had packed away and I headed with my Eldest son as he was in one of the Dragon Boat teams!
I felt great and for no apparent reason started to get light headed, breathing was difficult and sat on a low wall feeling very unwell.

A first-aider was close by and soon recommend getting to Hospital, which thanks to one if the leaders of our boat race team , drove me promptly to A&E where I just made it as my condition worsened!
I must had a panic attack and was struggling to breathe, the ECG showing a very fast heart rate. The doctors administered all sorts of drugs including aspirin to thin my blood. A am very grateful to Brian for staying with me and helping to calm me down. Our conversation about car park wardens in rip-off Britain will remain with me for ever!

I was sent back up to the MAU ward and spent all day staring at either the clock or the ceiling. Thanks to my Wife and Sister for spending time with me it really helped keep my spirits up.
Finally I had my second blood tests at 10:45pm and just over an hour later the results can back confirming that my heart had not been damaged in the morning's episode :)
So at 12:30am I arrived home discharged again as an out-patient and now await further tests.

Because of my knee I could not take part in the Freckleton Half, so my revenge on it's punishment on me last year will have to wait!
Happily though Colin G who was on top form at Edinburgh with a 3:07 came 34th (1:26:40) out of 650 runners at today's Freckleton. If I can get him back to the track I am sure I can get him sub 85 and 3:00 for his half and full marathons!

I am now on full rest which means no work, no coaching on Monday's (I hope Don can step of retirement for a while), parkrun race directing, volunteer co-ordinator for now. Fortunately the poppy-run is not until October 30th and I have a fair bit of the work done anyway.

I hope your week as been much better than mine!


Mark K

1st mile knee pain-free in 2 months

Yey, at last after 2 months of rest I managed 4 laps of the track knee pain free! my fitness is wiped out of course but a good sign in any case.
The bike work however is helping to get my cardio work back on track and I hope that I can get fit in time to complete the robin hood marathon. Finishing the marathon rather than any PB goal of course and this marathon was only ever for... FUN.

Oldham parkrun was a great success this week not just for the super turnout but from the buzz before and after the event.
The weather was great, sunny, light breeze and around 9 deg Celsius. As we processed the results the temperature dropped rapidly and by the time I pulled up at home it was hail-stoning! Talk about fickle weather systems...

So this week I will try and stick a couple of miles down on the track and kick start a short marathon training plan.
I hope you have had a good running week and I should think my next race will be the Sale 10 mile in a couple of months time, or perhaps a parkrun as they are every week ;)

Mark K

The road ahead

Tomorrow I am supposed to start my 12 week programme for the Robin Hood Marathon (RHM) in September... so today I went on a bike ride to kick start at least a bit of fitness! Over 15 miles and my knee never once complained.
So tomorrow I will head out on the track and complete a mile, I hope. All being well I can start to get back to marathon fitness in good time, the RHM is not a major target so if I can not get ready in time then its no big loss.

Oldham parkrun was a great success this week with 64 finishers, quite a few of which turned out in fancy dress as it was the "runfree" event promoted by Lucozade. It was a very welcome site to see runners re-hydrating after a very warm 5K event. I hope to get a photograph from Saturday and publish on this blog, my fancy dress outfit was... warm to say the least!

So sorry it is a short post but hey if I run 1 whole mile tomorrow night it could mean a return to lots of running!

Have a great running week

Mark