Life

Compressed time

simon Life, running , , Comment

The week starting 28th of May is perhaps the busiest I have ever had.

In a 2 week period I am supposed to be:

Training with my guide dog
Undergoing eye surgery
Sitting my semester 2 university exams
Training for the SDW100
Celebtrating my 30th

Now unfortunately it simply isn’t possible to fit all that in. So I have had to unfortunately defer my university exams, surgery and drop my spot for the SDW100. It really is a shame that it was all scheduled in the same 2 weeks period but I felt the guide dog was the one I really couldn’t postpone.

I I had taken a pass on this dog I had no idea how long it would of been until I had another potential match. So on the 28th of May (the day after I run an ultra!) I will begin training with Ascot my guide dog.

As for surgery, I have no idea when that will happen now. It is a real shame as I really need that sorting as it is causing enormous problems in all areas of my life, although these may be eased with the presence of Ascot.

As for the SDW100, I will run that next year. Infact to make up for missing this year I may even enter the Grand Slam! So if anyone else would like to join me and run the entire Centurion Running Grand Slam let me know. We could get a nice collection of buckles going!

A Rough Day

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Today has just seemed like one of those days where everything seems to go slightly wrong.

The day started out pretty well, I had to make a few adjustments in travel arrangements today so I headed round to my sisters to get a lift in with my brother in law. I then ended up shooting my willing nephew repeatedly with a Nerf gun. This was certainly a fun morning activity!

Arriving in sheffield we missed my first lecture due to a few issues and I had decided my time would be better spent working on an essay. A quick call from the press association attempting to schedule filming for that day gave me an opportunity to bargain for a lift home! They didn’t go for it so we rearranged for another day and I had to figure out another way to get home.

Shortly after this is where it all started going wrong. I had to attend an afternoon lecture to get an opportunity to chat to the lecturer about an essay I am yet to begin.

Just as I was about to approach the lecturer my phone rang. At the minute I always answer my phone immediately just in case its Guide Dogs, I am desperate for a guide dog so any phone call I hope it to be the one. Turned out it wasn’t and the lecturer left before I got a chance to talk to him. That was pretty much the entire reason I went in today for that quick chat to the lecturer.

I decided to make plans to get home and arranged to meet someone at the train station where I live. This meant a simply trip on the tram and train something I do regularly. However this time it just didn’t seem to go smoothly.

All the stair wells had been closed off, so when you use a cane the only way you find this out is when you bump into the barriers. So I eventually made it to the platform I needed to be at with a little assistance and I waited patiently for my train. My train always leaves on the same platform, so its a simply case of waiting on platform 2 for the right train.

“the train approaching platform 2 is the 1520 to Leeds”

Thats a little early I thought, surely its only around 1500. So I moved away from the platform and waited for the next train. A few minutes later another announcement.

“the train approaching platform 3 is the 1520 to Leeds”

Eh? So the train I just missed was the one I wanted? Dammit. So now getting annoyed I waited for the next train.

“the train approaching platform 2 is the late 1520 to Leeds”

This time I thought I would ask the conductor who got off the train what was going on. Turned out this train was actually the late 1520 to Leeds, who knows what the others were.

So I continued to wait and finally a train I could catch was announced. By this time I was becoming frustrated as I was worried I would miss my lift the other end. The train was announced and 10 minutes later it still hadn’t arrived!

When it finally did I boardedd the train squeezed into the totally inadequate seating and waited for the conductor. Who then proceeded to annoy me by questioning the validity of my rail card. Felt like swearing but I let it be and headed home in a grumpy mood.

So there it is my rant about today, seems stupid now and it was pretty much forgotten once I had finished my run. But british rail you do annoy me

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!

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

simon Life 2 Comments

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…..

simon Life 1 Comment

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

simon Life, running , , , , 1 Comment

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

simon Life , Comment

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

simon Life, running , , 1 Comment

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!