In my last blog I mentioned a few things that I should have achieved by this blog:
1. Started my cycling training (achieved);
2. Created an online donations page (achieved); and
3. Become more adept at bouldering (achieved).
Unfortunately, it's safe to say that I've hit a hick-up along the way. Fortunately, one that is quickly resolving and won't hamper my actual Marathon training! But it has affected my training for my holiday.
On 31 August I went to Yorkshire to visit Andy in Howden. Having been best man at his wedding it was probably poor form of me not to have visited him in t' north since he moved there 3 years ago.
I'd never actually been to Yorkshire before, but I can report that it's a beautiful place with friendly people (Knaresborough to the left). Locations akin to the homely British communities that are portrayed in American rom-coms. A different planet from London where it's unusual not to hear a siren, helicopter or loud group of people every 5 minutes. I felt charmed by the peacefulness of Andy's village and his quaint cul-de-sac where everyone knows each other, with the familiar wave/greeting. I also went to York and drank some mead out of a Viking horn, amongst other things. An interesting place!
For the long weekend we had planned wakeboarding, footgolf and climbing, with pub crawls in the evenings. We were basically 13 lads and a strip-club away from it being a bona fide stag weekend.
When I was younger I had a strange curse of accidentally cutting my foot on the first day of every holiday. This stopped when I got older. Well, it's back, with a vengeance. We went wakeboarding on the first day, a few hours after I'd arrived by train. You begin on kneeboards to understand how the cable system worked and what to do when you wiped out (which is inevitable). Once you can prove that you can do two circuits of the lake without coming off the board, you can upgrade to a wakeboard. We both achieved this relatively quickly, but not without a few forceful crashes. You begin stationary on a dock, holding onto a long rope attached to the cable system. When the cable picks up your rope, you're launched across the water at 30kph. I like to think that I'm quite strong and physically fit, but the stress on the body when wakeboarding really is quite something else. The most physically demanding sport I've ever tried. It saps all of the energy out of your arms and it's very technically demanding too.
To sum up, I was pretty damn awful. I later realised that I had been given a board which was opposite to what I should have had, a bit like giving a left handed tin opener to a righty (my saving grace - or convenient excuse - you decide). On my last attempt (after 2 hours of faceplants) I came off my board again. As I put my foot down in the water, i felt it. I knew it wasn't good as I felt something puncture into the bottom of my foot.
I was given first aid and that was that. We went for a curry that night and the beer helped with the pain. The next morning I unnaturally woke up at 5am and I wondered how my foot was. I took my first step out of bed and just fell to the floor. I couldn't apply any pressure on my foot. That was game over for footgolf and climbing.
We went to the Minor Injuries Unit and it was steri-stripped. Three days later I went to another MIU and I was advised that my foot should have been stitched, but the healing process was too far along to do that now. I wasn't convinced that it was healing and I was sure that it was infected. In the space of a week I saw 3 nurses, spoke to 111 and was refused an assessment by a doctor, all of whom told me that my foot was healing well and wasn't infected (apart from 111 who got it right without having actually seen my foot). I had an appointment at my GP Practice and I was advised that my wound was infected. The wound was debrided, I received a tetanus injection and I was prescribed a week of 500mg Flucloxacillin 4 times a day. It's been 3 weeks since I injured my foot and I'm finally able to walk on it again without a limp. The infection has cleared, but there's still some local tenderness in the tissue beneath the wound. This may take a few more weeks before it subsides.
Unfortunately, the above has come at a cost to my cycling training for my upcoming holiday. In a week and a half I'll be going to Scotland to cycle 186 miles around the Highlands and Inner Hebrides over 4.5 days. This is approximately the distance from London to Doncaster by bike. I haven't exercised in 3 weeks. I suspect that I'm in for some sore, sore muscles.
Now, time to get on with some fundraising!
Within 13 hours of publishing my fundraising page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Daryl-Tollervey-marathon my very generous donors have helped me reach 12% of my total. In the next 7 months hopefully I'll get the next 88%!
I've also put a deposit down for a function room at a local pub, so that I can host a charity pub quiz in November. I have somehow managed to amass 45 confirmed attendees which is fantastic and I'm incredibly grateful for their support. I'm now aiming for 60 people, but I'm more than happy with the 45. I've already started preparing questions as I will be the quiz master for the evening, which I'm really quite excited about doing.
What I have learnt recently is that I need to be more selective with risk prior to the Marathon. I think that I will be hitting pause on the extreme sports until next May. I wouldn't want to let down my charity, my sponsors or myself by injuring myself out of the Marathon.
My next update should be after my holiday and when I should be back to a decent level of training. The weather has started to turn and the training can only be getting colder, harder and wetter from now on.
Good luck to all of the other Marathon hopefuls in the public ballot, who should find out their destiny in the next few weeks!