Support

When you cross the finish line, you know that all your hard work has paid off and to an extent that is true .. but for me there is also the hard-work of all the people that make it possible for me to achieve what I do.

Firstly Lee, my husband we train together and walk together on the day, through the years we have both had ups and downs on the day, good and bad patches and having each other I honestly feel makes us stronger.

Me and Lee on his first Parish Walk

Shell and Alla (AKA Michelle and Allan) they have been our Shell and Alla since Caitlin was a baby and couldn’t pronounce their names. - they have been my support since my very first attempt in 2007 I don’t know how I roped them in, but I’m glad I did!

Michelle and Allan will come out anywhere from Peel to Bride - depending on if I can rope someone else into, they patiently drive along waiting on me hand and foot. Nothing is ever too much trouble for them. They are perfect for me, I don’t like to know how others ahead of me are doing, so they don’t tell me. I give them a guide time I like to be at each church (usually scribbled on the race booklet at the respective church) they make no comment on how I am doing unless I ask.

They do not force me to eat if I feel sick or drink but they know if they suggest I have something I usually will take it from them as I realise they are more of aware of what I am eating and drinking than I am. They know if I’m struggling because I go quiet and stop smiling - and they will just reduce the distance they drive ahead of me so they see me a little more often.

They drive around through the night just to help me finish the parish walk, they get no trophy or awards for themselves, I honestly couldn’t do this without them!! They are as important to me as the training!

I also must mention Lynne, who usually supports through the Barclays stand before driving out to meet us at Roundtable and staying with us till the night team takeover. Lynne is always a welcomed sight, she helps keep us in good spirits up towards my least favourite part of the course.

I have tried support before, yes it’s easier in the respect that you don’t have to walk but harder in every other way, it’s boring as you sit in your car for long periods of time, you have to keep getting out of your nice warm car to pass over refreshments, you get tired and fed up as it is a long way ! So remember when you are coming through Maughold in the middle of the night that your support are tired too and don’t forget to speak to them how you would like to be spoken too. There is nothing I hate more than hearing people bark orders at their support, or forget basic manners as no matter how tired you are if you can keep on walking you can at least do it politely.

There will be times when you walk when your support have driven on a bit further than you will of liked, or not got you what you asked for quick enough but this is part and parcel of it (obviously this doesn’t happen to me as Shell and Alla are perfect) but it helps not to get annoyed by it, just think you have got a bit further down the road and passed a bit more time!

Obviously since I started taking part in the parish walk I have gone from 1 daughter to 3, so arranging care for them is no easy task we have a team of people who help including friends and my sisters ! We are very lucky to have such a great support team.

This week I have done a couple of walks 4 miles before the gym on Tuesday and 6 miles last night with Kathryn!

Happy Training only 65 days to go !

Fireman's Walk

This was my longest training walk to date, and I was super happy with it! Lee and I decided we would treat this as a training walk as we had both done a lot of running, but little in the way of walking training compared to other years!

We started very casually at the back of the pack - it was nice and relaxed, albeit a little cold as we didn’t bring any jackets ... we had a plan to stick to 12 minute miles for the distance and just get the 50k completed.

I’m not a huge fan of the route (it’s the middle section of the parish and from Ballaugh to at least bride, I just never seem to enjoy it or have a good time). Whilst I didn’t feel sick in this walk I was massively under prepared. I blame the fatigue I have felt since last weeks Marathon.

Normally with any long events, I do all the planning including race entries, including what we will eat and drink, I do all the shopping, pack the clothes , medical supplies and anything else we may need, however as this was a training walk in my head I let Lee get on with it, whilst I made a lasagna to go in the oven when we got home, along with a new pasta recipe for tea.

Lees packing for the day reminded me exactly why I do it all, I air on the side of caution I take a lot of things just incase .. Lee on the other hand packed the bare minimum and we didn’t even have a drop of water left at the end, all energy gels were used and there were no alternatives if I didn’t fancy his pre-mixed drinks.

My shoes disappointed me slightly as I got a blister on the inside of my left arch and I found the Ball of my right foot uncomfortable. I did think I had a blister there while I was walking but when I got home there was nothing. But it has left me wondering about what shoes to wear for the parish. I don’t know if my feet have got used to the luxury of brooks cushioning, that I wear for running! I used to wear the Asics DS racers, which have been discontinued. Then I moved to the Saucony Fastwitch so now I’m unsure .. (Lee will say this is just an excuse for me to buy new trainers!)

I’m sure in the walk I was not the only person to notice how awful the pavements are from Kirk Michael to Ballaugh and Sulby to Ramsey, although I did enjoy a stroll down the new cycle lane..

Normal training will resume now with a couple of short walks this week, and a long walk at the weekend. We finished the walk in 6.04 not a PB but about 15 seconds quicker a mile than we had planned, we couldn’t of done this with out Nicola supporting us and Vicki looking after the mini Johnson’s - Thank You !

Also I must mention the amazing walking from James Quirk and Jayne Farquhar on winning the firefighters Memorial walk - what incredible times.

Not forgetting my Husband and my good friends Liz, Leanne, Angela, Caroline, Denise & Lee Cowin who are all doing amazing in their parish training! And a special mention to David and his bloody feet, I guess that’s what happens when you walk zero miles in training! David is getting married later this year, and has a special reason for taking part. His wife to be Sophie, is the daughter of Sara Killey, the race is held in her memory.

Not to mention my eldest daughter just passed her driving test! Safe to say I have a new support member!
Happy Training !

67 days to go

Sub 4 Club

Lee and I travelled over Saturday afternoon, we had a lovely child free meal on Saturday night, before catching the train to Runcorn where we were staying.

Our friends Hayley and Dave picked us up at 7 am and we drove to Manchester, we found a park straight away and started walking to the starting area.

Dave was supporting us all so we all said our goodbyes, wished each other luck and went off to find our respective pens ! Lee went off to the front, and Hayley and I set off to find ours. We decided we would just start together, as we were in different pens, Hayley moved forward to mine. Time went really quickly and we were soon moving over the line.

Hayley and I separated when the run started as we hadn’t planned to run together, we didn’t see each other again until about the halfway point when Hayley took over me!

The run was very busy, in training I found it easy to stick to a pace but it was much harder on the day as I found you were either speeding up to get round people or getting stuck behind people. The first half went pretty quickly for me, but I did hit a wall around the half way point, I felt I needed something so took an extra gel!

I found the second half quite tough, my legs felt heavy and I was craving something sweet like Lucozade. I wondered if my legs were heavy after having a bit of rest period, due to injury in the 3 weeks leading up to the marathon? But who knows.
At around 19.5 miles I had started to talk to a guy and I pointed to him there was £10 on the floor. You could tell we were both struggling as neither of us could be bothered to pick it up! Not long after this he told me where he was from not that I can remember, but he also said he had forgotten his wallet and was hoping the petrol station would take Apple Pay. I laughed and said he should of picked the £10 up as it would of got him home.

Soon after I caught up to Nelson (Sarah Curphey) and she was struggling. Like me, she had been ill the night before and hadn't been able to take anything apart from water on board. It was great to see her, she was the first friend I met when I moved to the Island in 1998. She was Sarah Nelson back then, hence why I call her Nelson. We ran 4 miles together, she managed to take a little of one of my energy gels on, and an ice pop that a lovely lady was handing out - it was the most refreshing thing I had during the run! Nelson told me to run on at 24 miles as she knew I had my target of under 4 hours in sight.

At mile 25 I was over the moon to see Kathy and Michael ! It was the second time I had seen them on course, and each time it has lifted my spirits (I had missed them once). Our other supporter Dave I only saw once despite him being in 3 places too! It’s hard to explain how much it means to see a friendly face, mixed in with the millions of other spectators, but they definitely made my day!

The last mile went fairly quickly. I could see that, unless I had a massive issue, I was going to get my “sub 4” marathon time! Which I did crossing the line in 3 hours 52 minutes and 52 seconds .!! Such a big achievement for me, knocking 23 minutes off last years marathon and over an hour off my first marathon.!

We had arranged a place to meet at the end and Lee and Hayley were waiting for me. I asked them how they had done and Hayley casually said 3.52..! I thought she was joking I said no I did 3.52 ! She actually did it in 3.52.35 I couldn’t believe we were only 23 seconds apart at the finish line yet didn’t see each other. Lee did and incredible time of 3.17 !! People kept asking me when they were tracking lee what his number was as there were two Lee Johnson’s running - turns out it didn’t matter which Lee they were tracking as they finished less than 1 minute apart !

I still can’t believe that Hayley and I got into the sub 4 marathon club, and Lee got a sub 3.20! I’m so proud of us all !

Bit of rest this week, Parish training will resume next week.!

72 days till the parish ..!

Hardest walk of my life... Part 2

Shortly after the e-mail about the cancellation a second email arrived advising us that there was a new venue ! Bellville Stadium, it was to be hosted on a 400m track !! The furthest I had ever walked on a track was 10k and that was far enough ! So whilst I didn’t relish in thought of 402 and a quarter laps it was a lot more favourable than travelling home without even attempting the 100 miles !

We arrived in plenty of time, probably too much time, it took all of 10 minutes to set up in the gazebo they had provided for International walkers and found a couple of chairs for Caitlin and Linda to base them selves.

It was so hot, we tried to find a little shade to sit and wait for the start, the stadium was very busy as the relay was a popular event.

As it was 100 years celebration for Nelson Mandela before the race everyone was invited to walk a lap of the track, I guess to do it before the walk was sensible as I wouldn’t of fancied it if they had added it on the end.

After the lap of honour and a short speech the race got under way, i started off with Andy and Jantinus.. it was a good pace, but I was worrying about the heat .. Andy left the group first to go to the toilet he then seemed to speed off we thought he was trying to catch up the little distance he lost but when he caught us up he just carried on motoring round. Next it was my turn to leave as I needed the toilet too ( the toilets were set about 50meters inside the track - I remember thinking I would of preferred it if they were right on the side of the track)

I felt ok just very hot for the first couple of hours but at around the 13 mile mark I started to feel very sick, I don’t normally suffer with sickness so this was a bit alien to me but I remember the thoughts going through my head, should I stop ? Was it acceptable to travel all the way to South Africa to walk a half marathon? - I decided it wasn’t so kept on going slowly .. at the 30 mile mark I started vomiting at the side of the track, I’m usually quite phobic about sick but it was a relief. The medics came over on their bicycles and told me I looked awful and asked if I wanted to stop. Stop? I smiled and said "no way I feel great now!" They made me drink some water and then I carried on.

I would say I had a good next 20 miles, just getting the laps in. I was happy and I would say I was enjoying it. At around the 50 mile mark the sickness came back and I was vomiting again at the side of the track (an attractive sight I’m sure) the medics came back, but thankfully let me continue. Caitlin was an incredible help she would come running to find me when I didn’t make it to her in the usual time. For the first time in any event I had a little break and sat down I saw Stew Jones from the Isle of Man, and he looked in as good spirits as me, so I asked if he wanted to walk with me and we could feel crap together but we didn’t last long walking together as Stew decided to a break and I just carried on slowly plodding.

I can’t really recall much of the rest of the walk it was a bit of a blur, I know I visited the toilets a lot, as I kept feeling I needed a wee but I didn’t and each time it would frustrate me more as I had to keep detouring off the track - I don’t think it was dehydration as I did drink a lot.

The organisers provided Coca Cola and salted potatoes. I don’t normally have either when I’m walking but I did drink quite a lot of the Coke and at the time it tasted nice, it probably didn’t so my sickness any good but I just kept drinking it.

I kept my head down and carried on through the night was a relief from the hot sun, but the dark didn’t seem to last long and before I knew it the sun was rising !

I did eventually finish the walk in my slowest time of 23 hours 32 minutes and 51 seconds in the position of 3rd Lady and I was the 35th person to gain the African Centurion Badge!

Andy Green walked a phenomenal race, he didn’t appear to ever slow down - it was just incredible to watch! Andy was the overall winner finishing in a very impressive 20 hours 57 minutes and 39 seconds ! It was Andy’s first ever Centurion!

I got to the presentation which was held 2 hours after the race, I sat down at the table and just as the presentation started, I started to feel terrible I got up and managed a few steps out of the tent where I collapsed and passed out, I woke up having the medical team testing my blood sugars and force feeding me a banana and some awful drink! Caitlin thankfully took my place in the presentation and had her photos taken with my certificate and badge !

I started to feel better and we decided to get an Uber back the apartment, it was hot in the car I nodded off but not for long I awoke feeling sick yet again I said to Caitlin I was going to be sick and I believe I tried to open the car door whilst we were driving, Caitlin stopped me and Linda found me a bag, (the only bag she had was a food bag) thankfully the driver has noticed I wasn’t well and was pulling over just in time for me to get the door open before I stared vomiting again! When I had finished I laughed at the food bag .. I didn’t get back in the car, thankfully we weren’t far away from the apartments so Caitlin and I walked back ! I did feel much better.

When we eventually got into out apartment I had a shower and fell asleep still wrapped in my towel I remember waking up a few hours later thinking what just happened ? I couldn’t even remember if I had finished or not so after a quick scramble around the room I found my certificate and badge and got back into bed hardly able to believe I had actually achieved it !

Caitlin and I travelled home the next day, we popped to say good bye to Andy and Linda who were amazed at how well I looked after the day before. We were super lucky the flight home was so empty and we were able to have a row of 4 seats each and slept the majority of the way home !

Africa Centurion complete .. 3 down - 3 to go

That’s all for tonight, tomorrow we are travelling Across for the Manchester Marathon on Sunday!

78 days to go ..