Great North Runners with the same family expression
Great Granma Cochrane knitted this jacket
Dad shows Alfie how to take his first steps
As I jogged through Throckley Woods a couple of days ago I was thinking happy thoughts.
- I could do Prudhoe Riverside Parkrun on Saturday.
- Then follow it up on New Years Eve.
- A weekly race for the next few months would complete my challenge by my birthday on 29th March.
- I feel good!
Three miles under the belt and I turned for home. Later that day it hit me, unbelieveable tiredness. By bedtime I felt so ill that I began thinking the worst. The next day, yesterday, I still felt weak. Today, I sought advice/ reassurance from the Stroke Unit.
Stroke fatigue is normal, rest (damn you!). It seems that adrenal and the release of endorphins was all that was keeping me going as I ran. Afterwards, fatigue is normal. So, for me, it is rest and in a week, or two, I can walk quickly and maybe, just maybe, jog a very short distance. Let your body tell you what you can do. Ok, I accept.
With Christmas almost here, I must be thankful for the most important thing in life, my family. I have been lucky to have had just a mini stroke, now I must thank God for that and being here and able to enjoy a happy Christmas.
As a follow up to my last post ' I'm only human after all' , Rag'n'Bone Man is looking like being No. 1 for Christmas in the charts. He is already number 1 in I Tunes (?). You heard it here first.
With Izzi , the inspiration for my original challenge, on Helvellyn, plus fellow Harriers
Mum and dad (Flight Sergeant Ronald Graham) 1946
My grandfather, (William) Monkhouse Graham was born in 1900 and served as a 16 year old in the First World War until his mother pointed out his age and was able to reclaim him from the front line. He went on to live a very ordinary life. You could say he didn't really achieve much, but he was a smashing chap. I can never recall him saying a bad word about anyone, never swore, shouted, or had a bad mood, ever. He did not have a day's illness in his life, until the very end, when 74 years old, he suffered a massive stroke. Even then he fought it courageously and when I visited him in Sunderland General Hospital, he couldn't speak but still pointed me out to his nurse. I could see that he was as proud of me, as I was of him. I loved Granda and know that he would hate to think that he left an unwanted legacy to me, but it would appear that he did.
My dad, Ronald (Ronnie) Graham, born 1923, like his father, Will, he never had a single day's illness. He never smoked, was always fit and lived a healthy life style, but in his sixties suffered a stroke. Not a massive one like Granda, but enough to take away his ability to swallow. It meant that for sixteen hours a day he took all nourishment through a tube into his stomach. After eighteen months, the doctors said that his system's ability to take nourishment normally would have atrophied, but he did not accept that and continued to take a single drop of malt whisky onto his tongue every day to keep his taste buds working. Over two years passed before he was able to actually swallow, but he did and for the rest of his life, almost twenty years, was able to eat, albiet slowly, in the normal way.
At this point you may wonder what this family history has to do with a running log recording one hundred races from my 65th birthday. Please bear with me.
I was always aware that I had a marginally increased risk of suffering a stoke myself because of the family history( Just today, my elder brother, William Monkhouse Graham, told me that Great Grandfather also suffered a stroke at age 74 years. In his case death was instantaneous). To reduce the risk further I have never smoked, and kept myself fairly fit. In my thirties when my lifestyle, desk/ company car/ expense account, started to impinge on my weight and fitness I started running. It was not long before I found that I was pretty good runner and after joining Tynedale Harriers, soon had my 10k times below 40 minutes and 10 miles below 65 minutes. These were my average race times until I hit my fifties, infact, in my fifties I was able to get around the Hexhamshire Hobble's 10.5 mile Fell Race in 1hr.15mins. The latter race has particular significance to this blog as I was not able to compete in last Sunday's race after a incident the previous evening.
Whilst sitting in my armchair watching 'Celebrity', I must have been bored - no surprise there - and started working on my stiff neck. Click, click, went my stiff upper vertebrae as I nodded up and down, then crack, crack as I moved my head from side to side. Then I stood up and was in trouble. I felt weak and when I tried to speak, I was slurring my words.
Yes, I did worry about a possible stroke, but I didn't feel ill - as an endurance runner pain is just something you accept. Muriel asked if we should go to Casualty. "What at 10pm on a Saturday night?" I replied. " Let's see how I am tomorrow."
The next morning my speech had improved to the point that it sounded just a little short tongued. "Would you Google - 'sudden onset of short tongued', Muriel, please." I asked. Well, you might guess that there was a website that provided an acceptable answer, 'Short tongued Syndrome', easily cured by a visit to your chiropractor, and that is what I did. My Chiropractor, Russell, at Hexham Family Chiropractic, soon put a stop to that nonsense.
To cut a long story short, my blood pressure, heart rate, etc., are what you would expect from a runner, a CAT scan was also ok, but we have a wonderful N.H.S and that was not enough to give me a clean bill of health, to cut out any doubts I was given a MRI scan and I have suffered a stoke.
Until the doctor told me this I would not accept that I had a problem. After he left the room I shed tears, not I hope, of self pity, but frustration and disbelief. How could I, a super athlete, possessing almost super human powers ( I exaggerate ) be human after all?
For the moment my 100 race challenge must come to an end. I will try to append my progress in the original 65forizzi challenge and the 100 race challenge to this blog - my IT skills are not very good, but bear with me. I do hope to come back to the challenge, but it is better if I do not put myself under any pressure in this respect right now.
For the moment have a look at what I have actually achieved over the last 19/20 months, then look at Rag'n'Bone Man-Human (Official Video)- Youtube, it has been quite a shock to accept but,
I'M ONLY HUMAN AFTER ALL.
