Coming back from ….. Injury, Life event.
Life throws curve balls as we know, we can’t stop thoughts in our lives they just happen.
What I have learned to do is accept that this is the case, and even though it may be absolutely S#1t there is nothing that we can do. I wish we had the Deloren out of Back the Future and just go back and change the situation, sadly as much as we dream and think this its not possible.
2017 changed my life, Oh boy I mean I was running fit just bounced from one Marathon to the next, literally. I ran Coober Pedy on Saturday only to run Barossa on Sunday, then went to Christchurch NZ to run a 3rd Marathon yep.
In May 2017 at the Ultra Trail Australia UTA 100K a race I have done 5 times before odd thing happened I needed, pure SALT. I cramped from 20k in and for 80K i battled cramp, I had thoughts of pulling out. What I didn’t. I didn’t know that the heart, the engine of my body was slowly dying, and the salt was my heart needed it……. WOW
Fast forward a month or so later I started with this dry throat for the first few K’s into a run and then I was firing on all cylinders. Again I didn’t know that was angina. My arteries were partially blocked and once warmed them up, it was as if I had the full blood flowing. Scary thinking about it now. But I didn’t know, sure if I did I wouldn’t have run and be in the hospital ASAP.
September came around and I ran for South Australia in the Marathon Champs in Sydney, so pumped as a VIP starting at the front on TV. I rocked a 3 hour 11 minute run…. but felt odd exhausted. The following week was the Yurribilla 56k trail run which I took it easy …. the first 3K had dry throat and then ok….. yeah we had fun 7 hours 30 minuets.
The Wheels started falling off the week later and the dry throat had progressed when I cycled ….. then when I drove that night, followed by a sharp pain down my left arm…… bugger yep I didn’t know it was a heart attack, but one of those moments I did know.
So 17-10-17 I had a CABG Cardiac Arterial Bypass Graft… a re-plumb of extra pipes. I asked the doctors not to rip the vein from my leg, they listened to me thankfully, and used actual arteries that have natural Nitro in them, yes the GT version. My heart today is 110% good and I am lucky and thankful to be.
It is the recovery that I want to talk about…
How do you come back?
Yeah well, you have choices in life, put your head in the sand or just get the heck on with it…. I was fit enough thankfully to friends I was able to walk parkrun and slowly bit by bit complete the full 5k, then run walk 5k.
I remember in the hospital when I was let go into this new World, what I felt was a new me, learning of how I was going to cope with this major surgery, I couldn’t even think about running….. All I had to do was get through the day and that was enough of a challenge. Then I decided to run a Marathon 10 weeks and 5 days after surgery, I had built up some strength so it wasn’t totally crazy, ok maybe a little but hehe I am back. This Madness of mine continued and ran an ultra 70K in Victoria the Berry Long Run, followed by 100k within 12 months and then within 18 months 161k 100 miles that wasn’t easy in NZ 44 hours of running.
Today 2023
Today some of you know that I have a brain injury. Yeah I mean I look ok on the outside now, amazing what body filler can do, aka makeup. However, 18 months ago I was not so flashy. It's been another journey of recovery, finding your limits, realising that you need to rest at times, and find the right people to put back the Lego pieces again to build a new Me…
This brain thingy is a little harder than just building your fitness up, the flashes of the white bonnet and my black gloves before I flew over the car smashing the windscreen…..
Again I can not change that moment in time, the guy didn’t look left and didn’t STOP at the STOP sign…. Why I don’t know….. I am left broken, retraining the brain, re-building my broken body, finding this might help, finding mindfulness, eye exercises. I still look in the mirror at the scars left behind and on my arms, and knees. I again wish my Smart car was a Deloren to go back in time, but it isn’t.
In Conclusion
It is up to YOU to choose your path in life, it’s up to YOU if you choose to get back up. Only YOU can make these decisions in LIFE even though your path or course that you set sail changes, accepting this is half YOUR battle in coming back.