Author: simon

Post Surgery and the Media

simon Life, running , , , 4 Comments

Around a month ago I finally had eye surgery on my left eye. While the surgery went well I arrived home in quite a lot of pain. After 3 hours I couldn’t take the pain any longer and had to return to the hospital, turned out my cornea had been scratched during the operation and was causing my a lot of pain. Thankfully nothing serious so I went home and waited out the pain.

However the past few weeks have been incredibly difficult, the imbalance the surgery has created is too great. I am really struggling. This has unfortunately caused a few issues with university and training.

I will have to defer some of my university exams and essays till the summer. I simply don’t have enough time to catch up on everything I have missed. This is a real shame as I didn’t want to have to resort to this, but I would rather get a result I am happy with and wait till summer.

I also had to miss a small amount of training which is having an effect. My calf muscles seem to be having a real issue with lactic acid, I seem to build up the acid far to quickly. I hope this subsides in a week or so otherwise it will be a lot of grunting when I compete!

On the positive side I seem to be gaining a lot of media attention really and today received a wonderful writeup in the Guardian! You can read it over here. I have also given interviews for a number of magazines and newspapers, I will try and link to them as they are released!

Weekend at the stadium

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This past weekend I had the pleasure of competing on each day at the Olympic Stadium.

Day 1 was a 5 mile route around the olympic village that finished inside the stadium on the finish line of the track.

We had set off from doncaster at 5am in order to drive down and arrive in London. I had read there would not be changing facilities so thought I would just go down in my running gear as it wouldn’t be to cold. I also seemed to forget to pack any normal clothes for the weekend break, so literally just had running gear, no coat, no jumpers nothing.

Arriving in London; after spending a large amount of time being lost! I soon realised how cold it actually was. My wife and I were not prepared for this weather. Everyone else seemed to realise it would be freezing and was wrapped up warm. Being northerns we decided to grin and bare it. However 3 hours later this tactic was no longer working. So we had to resort to buying official Olympic jumpers. I was worried my son might get cold so I donated mine to him and used my tough northerner training to get through the shaking.

As race time approached we headed to our holding gate and all the issues of being cold were forgotten. We were position at the back of the second wave as we had no intentions of making this a fast run. Then over the loudspeaker came an announcement “the visually impaired runners are due to set off next”. What?? there was a special section we were supposed to be in? we dashed to the front and missed the start, we quickly joined in around a minute or so after once they realised the majority of the visually impaired also had no idea there was a special section as they all begin to gather behind us.

The run took a scenic tour around the park and we were able to run around the freshly built arenas. My wife had never run further than 3 miles and never run faster than a 10:30 mile. So we pushed it a little and ran slightly faster than that. Sian was struggling a little around the course but the idea of finishing in the stadium spurred her on.

As we entered the stadium we ran in the service tunnels and the adrenaline really kicked in. Our pace quickly increased to 9 minute miles and we shot out into the stadium. Running on the track felt fantastic and the stadium seemed huge. Crossing the finish line was a great feeling and we even received a really hefty medal.

The next day we returned to the stadium for the 100m sprint. This is certainly not my preferred running distance and I am not a fan of sprinting. The full range of motion and the intensity just has injury waiting to happen written all over it.

We Hund around the stadium for a while watching the other races and took advantage of the polar opposite weather of the previous day. After a couple of hours me and Neil Bacon headed down to our holding area to get ready for the sprint.

(Get ready for the excuses) We entered the warmup facility where I did a few warmups before heading out to the track. Once we arrived outside and walked out onto the track itself I realised I couldn’t see the lines defining the lanes. I asked for assistance from the staff but it was to late, I was told to go for it!

So unable to see the lines or even how far I should be running; on the sound of the gun I went for it. I apparently took an early lead but I felt myself drifting into another lane, so I eased off and concentrated on trying to stay straight. This apparently was my downfall as I was overtaken by not one but two people!

I finished the race 3rd and felt a little disappointed. But then took splice in the fact I had just done a 100m sprint in the Olympic stadium so who cares what position I finished in.

The weekend was fantastic and I managed to walk away with 2 medals to remind me of the events and some great memories to take away with me. I also managed to tear up my muscles; sprinting just aint for me.

Olympic Stadium

simon Life, running , 1 Comment

This weekend I have the pleasure of not only competing once at the Olympic Stadium but twice!

Late last year I received a tweet from The National Lottery about entering their Olympic Park Run that would give me the opportunity to be one of the first people to cross the finish line at the stadium. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down and quickly entered. I was lucky enough to receive a slot in the event.

It also marks the first time my wife Sian will be acting as my guide runner. It would of been better if Sian had trained a little but hey the adrenaline on the day will get her beyond the finish line easily.

The second event on the Sunday was even more out of the blue. Again thanks to twitter I saw a tweet from the RNIB about the chance to compete in a 100m sprint at the stadium. Without a doubt the one event I would LOVE to run, but frankly am terrible at. I cannot sprint at all, so will be the one limping over the finish line last!

So this weekend should be a great opportunity and rather strangely I have an incredibly low bib number. (9) so they appear to be under the misconception that I am fast! This will definitely not be the case.

Confirmed

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Late Friday my torchbearing position was confirmed. Meaning June the 26th I will be carrying the torch through a small village called Armthorpe. This is obly. Few miles from my house so is the perfect place for me.

Over the past few weeks there have been lots of rumours about being Ble to our base the torch you carry. However the rumour was it would cost around £400. This was A large amount to pay to own the torch but it was something I really wanted to own to show my son.

The program to purchase the torch was announced and at a surprisingly lower price. £199. I was pretty happy with the reduced price. I did still feel it was a little rough to charge for the torch as some might big be able to afford it.

Much to my surprise when I checked my email there was one from Coca Cola. They had purchased my torch on my behalf and would present me with it on the day. A wonderful surprise but I still feel for the people who have to pay.

This week also saw my return to training after surgery. Having a real tough time at the minute but hopefully will all be sorted for the summer.

Time…..

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Where does all the time go.  Just recently my time has seemed so limited.  With the semester one exams being concentrated to the end of January I saw all my time being concentrated on intense revision with the hope to coming out with a grade I would be comfortable with.

Thankfully this turned out to be the case as I averaged a first in psychology.  I am stil to receive the results for my sociology modules but at this point in time I am mainly concerned with my psychology results.

January also saw the broadcast of the TV commercial I appeared in (as noted below).  I also began to appear in a number of magazines with the print campgain ASICS ran too.  So January really has been a whirlwind month,

This leads us into febuary which just seemed to disappear, with university restarting the same issues I had at the beginning of the first semester resurfaced.  Module choice was again a nightmare with a few emails of complaint flying around to enable me to secure some modules that I could actually attend and receive the support I need to complete them.  The joys of obtaining the books in a copy I am able to utilise also returned.  With yet again a huge difficulty.  This resulted in me simply purchasing the books in paperback format, cutting the spines and scanning them with a paper fed scanner.  With a lot of post processing I ended up with a book that frankly looks better than the original printed version.  These publishers really need to hire me as a consultant!

With all these frantic things going on I am still somehow managing to train?!?!?! I really have no idea sometimes how I find the time.  It is becoming an increasing demand so I am restructuring my university days in the hope to sneak in more training.  As well as finally biting the bullet and running in the morning.  I hate running in the morning, I enjoy lounging in bed far to much!

Now just beginning to enter March I have eye surgery rapidly approaching.  This Friday I will be having cateract surgery with the hope of allowing more light into my eyes.  This may recover some vision the operative word there being may,

I have some incredibly exciting things coming up in the next two weeks so will save those for separate blog posts.  So stay tuned!

Busy Month

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This month is without a doubt the busiest month in recent memory. With 6 essays and 3 exams all due over the next 2 weeks I am immensely busy. It has been a great opportunity to learn more about new areas of psychology though and I am finding a real interested in synthetic psychology.

It is a great combination of the technology I love and models of psychology. Creating artificial neural networks that can control robots that learn and interact with humans just sounds so 21st century! Will definitely be exploring more over the summer break.

This month has also been a big surprise on the TV commercial front. It has appeared online and on the TV! I also have a prying campaign running in many running magazines so keep an eye out for me. I have embedded the video below

I also promise to get updating this blog again as soon as this hectic month is over!

Once in a lifetime

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Once in a lifetime is a saying that gets easily used. When my wife and I travelled America we lauded how it was once in a lifetime. In reality we will no doubt repeat that trip in a decades time. We often use the saying when the task in actuality is easily repeated.

For once though I believe I have a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have been giving a condition place to be a London 2012 Olympic Torchbearer. The condition being I pass the security and background checks, pretty sure I will pass this easy enough!

So I am truly honoured to have been chosen. It is without a doubt the greatest reward for the past year of hard training and running. I would even rank it higher than my TV commercial!

Like most things in life there was a long string of interwoven events that led to me being nominated.

Disregarding all the training for a while, the timeline went a little like this:

I wrote a blog post about my experiences with RunKeeper and how it enabled me to train solo outdoors. This was quickly picked up by the RunKeeper team and appeared on their blog.

The Daily in New York found the story and ran an article on me.

This was quickly followed by Wired and CNN. Resulting in me filming a short for CNN that aired earlier this year. The Wired featured blog ran for a number of months and brought in lots more attention.

During the time I was writing for Wired I lost my pacing team. So I began a search for a new pacing team and perhaps the most instrumental people in the timeline were introduced.

I contacted UP & Running in the hopes they could help me piece together a pacing team. They went above and beyond and ran a small in store campaign and mentioned it on Twitter. This brought in the initial point of contact James Clay, along with James came Matt Puddy and Charlie Baxter.

Matt and Charlie took up the reigns and began to put together a team. Matt ran all the logistics, planning and organising. He was incredibly instrumental in allowing me to run my first ultra run.

With the run complete the next event was the ASICS call. They wanted a blind runner for a TV commercial and I didn’t really fit the bill. I had a quick chat and mentioned what I was doing alone and with my pacers was a better story than the one they were on the look out for. They agreed and the TV commercial was created.

These interwoven events created my running journey of the past year and were the basis of my nomination. I was kindle nominated by Charlie and Matt and was chosen. But without all those other people my story wouldn’t have got out there and the opportunity would never have presented itself.

So to all those people Thank you.

There is however one last mention. For my wife, she was there through all the difficulties of training, the time I was passed out on the bathroom floor, when my legs failed during training, when my water was stolen and most importantly she had the faith that when I said I could run alone she believed it.

Under The Knife

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The majority of blind people are still have some level of vision. Only around 2% see total darkness. Luckily I fall within than 98%. For example I can still perceive light that in turn allows me to see shapes and movement as well as on good days make out a little detail. The sight I have lost is my peripheral vision, central vision, colour definition and I also have total night blindness.

To be able to utilise this small amount of vision I need to wear glasses. This is often frustrating as glasses and contact lenses cost me around £1000 a year. This is an enormous amount of money for frankly very little benefit. The cost has become far to prohibitive now I am a student and I simply cannot afford it.

Thankfully I have another issue with my eyes: cataracts. This may not at first seem like a lucky ailment to have, but it does mean I qualify for surgery. During surgery plastic lenses replace my natural biological ones, the great thing is these can be prescription lenses.

So thanks to the cataracts I will have my prescription partly corrected and I will be able to afford to use my limited vision once again.

I am also interested to see what happens when I walk around using my cane without glasses. Currently I believe people are less willing to help as they believe I have a large amount of vision. People have even approached me and started conversations assuming because of my glasses I am simply partially sighted.

2012, the prospects

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2012 is looking to be a great year for projects, university and family life.

2012 will see my first year of university complete and hopefully coming out with a great grade. It has been tough going this past couple of months so I hope to have it all on track and get that all important first.

As for projects for 2012 where to start! I hope to launch a number of blogs focussing on running and fitness within the disabled community. I often forgot how lucky I am to have access to equipment and knowledge when it comes to exercise. So I plan to start a blog dedicated to making fitness accessible, from reviewing home equipment, creating audio instructions and simply workouts I hope to make fitness at home (and the gym) that little bit more accessible.

I will also be running the “Marathon Sandwich” blog that will detail the training for running the combined 52.6 miles needed to complete the sandwich (all in one go of course!). I am running this event to raise money for the SRSB which offers fabulous services to the blind. I will detail this more as time progresses.

I also have a few projects which will remain undisclosed until plans are firmed up!

As for family life, well that is always exciting. 2012 will see Graysons 2nd birthday and his first words! That is set to be a great occasion. Pretty sure there will be lots more trips to astrobound too!

RP Community

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Despite being registered blind for over a decade I have never been involved with the blind community. I decided early on to try and adapt as much as I could and keep this in a constant cycle, it was only when these adaptations required the use of a cane I became involved.

My increasing involvement has seen me start to arrange a fundraising event for Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind (SRSB). While I was chatting with the event organiser she mentioned there was a RP group meeting in a few weeks and would I like to come along. Unsure of what would be involved I thought it might be interesting.

The meeting consisted of a Dr talking about possible cures. Now I must mention as he did these cures are a long way off. We are talking gene therapy, stem cell research and bionic implants. All pretty much sci-fi at this point in time. I am well aware if a cure will be found it is at least 1-2 decades away. I am fine with this if there is a cure great! I will take it, if not I will have adapted and be doing what I want regardless.

The majority of people at the meeting seemed to get a lot from a talk on possible cures, they were seeking a medical classification and cure. U moved away from this idea many years ago. I feel concentrating on adapting rather than hoping for a cure is more productive. After all if I sat at home waiting for a cure that would be a very boring life.

Due to this I didn’t particularly take much from the meeting and when asked by the organisers I mentioned this. And I was asked the question “if you could turn back the clock and make is so you never lost your sight, would you?” the answer is no. While I would happily take a cure I wouldn’t change what has happened. I am only where I am in life due to everything that has gone, losing my vision made me adapt in specific ways. Each of those adaptations led me down a new path.

The path I have found myself on currently I am very happy with, a psychology student aiming towards a career path in clinical psyhoclogy or maybe even sport to tie in with my other passion right now, running. I only began running in an effort to push the boundaries and see what I was capable of, I don’t think I would ever of challenged myself like this if I had retained my vision.

I still plan to attend the meetings and hope there will be lots of talk about adapting and moving forward. I also look forward to working with SRSB.