I Should have been Arrested!

Ever since my Cochlear Implant Reimplantatation Operation, I've been sitting on the couch becoming the proverbial couch potato. If anyone mentioned exercise, I'd point to my head and say - oh it's sore - I will continue to rest up!! And that's what I've done for nearly 3 months.

I was sitting on the couch in my usual spot last week and noticed that the girth around my middle has increased somewhat. I can almost balance a cup of coffee nicely on there if I'm in the right position. The result of too much inaction, and that food group that starts with C. Chocolate is a food group isn't it??

Then I got an email from Coach Derek a.k.a meanie, sent to all our running group, about meeting at the crack of dawn for the start up of the winter running. I decided to go.

Despite getting to bed at 2am this morning, and not being able to sleep until 3am, my vibrating alarm clock woke me on the dot at 7am. I have to admit I contemplated rolling over and going back to sleep. But no, the thought of Dereks wrath sent me scurrying into the wardrobe in the freezing cold to find my running gear.

At 7.15am, I sent a text to Derek asking if the run is still on, in the hope that it wasn't. There's a southerly gale blowing and it threatened to rain. Still on. Drat. I had some breakfast, got my ipod out, found my cochlear implant cable and thought I'll just walk the course, not run, and just take it easy. After all, I'm old, don't want to be endangering my health.

Arrived down at the beach at 7.45. It was freezing. Hooked myself up to my ipod, and set off. It was sooo cold I was forced to run to try and get warm.

The first 1km was really hard, my ipod stopped working, I was cold, I felt unfit and disjointed. So walked while I got the ipod working again. for some reason the cord din't fit into the implant properly at first. Ahhhh music. Beat. I started running again, and got into that groove, ran the whole course in the end bar a 100 metres. Was very impressed that I hadn't lost that much fitness despite the increase of girth.

I started to sing. Now I'm running along Takapuna's Golden Mile, homes along the beach front worth a cool few million, and my singing is sounding worse than a dog on heat. You should have seen the looks I got from other runners and walkers, and even their dogs put on an expression of disgust or threw me a strange look. If it had been me in those homes, I would have rung the noise control officers with a complaint and had me arrested for disturbing the peace! Especially at that hour on a Sunday morning!

I only ran 4km this morning, breaking myself in slowly. But I felt like I could have run 3x that easily. The music really helps. I'm noticing that with this new implant I can hear the lyrics so much better, even heard words I had never heard before.

My only problem I had in the end was being unable to switch off the microphone of the implant so I could only hear the music on the ipod, and not the traffic, or (heaven forbid) me. I sound so awful I don't want to be able to hear myself either!
If any Cochlear Corp implant users know how to do this on the Freedom with the audio cable, please let me know - by Tuesday preferably as that's when I'm running again.

Anyone joining me??

Cheers
Robyn

The Oxfam 100km in 36 hours Challenge

I made a decision in the weekend. It was an extremely difficult one, and one that even though I feel is wise under the circumstances, makes me feel as if I’m inadequate for not being able to complete a goal this year. But all is not lost. Let me explain…

I’ve been training for the Oxfam challenge for the last three months. The Oxfam is an off-road challenge where you need to walk 100km in 36 hours. The team is made up of four walkers, plus the support crew. All four walkers in the team have to complete the full 100km to pass the challenge, and all four have to pass each checkpoint (four in total) together. The point of the challenge is to raise money for Oxfam, and as a team we need to raise $2000. The team includes both walkers and the support people. The walk is on the weekend of the 5th and 6th April.

We’ve been training in the Woodhill Forest, week after week, as well as going to the gym, running, and walking midweek. We’ve got up to 6 hours in a stretch in the forest, and this Sunday we’re walking 7 to 7.5 hours – about 40km. I’ve only missed one training session in the whole 3 months. Our team consists of Derek (Coach), Lara, Debbie, Saluma, Jackie, Sheila, Fran and myself. However, only four can walk it, so decisions need to be made on who is going on the team this year, and who will be the support crew. We will be doing it again next year as well, and those who are on the support crew this year, will walk it next year, which is why all is not lost!

From left to right - Shelia, Debbie, Derek, Jackie, Fran, Lara. I'm taking the photo so I don't break the camera! See the greenstuff under their feet? Thats some kind of herb - probably catnip, and when you walk on it, gives off an amazing minty aroma as you walk. Bliss!

I’m fast in the forest, and have no trouble completing those hours and keeping up, even though my feet scream with blisters most of the time. But after 6 hours, I’m totally knackered. At this stage there is no way I can walk 100km. I have admitted as much, and told everyone I will be on support rather than walk it. However, reserves are needed as anything can happen on the day, so I will continue the training.

This road goes for 12.5km and we walk it every week. It seems to go on and on and on and on and on! Very pretty for the first hour, and then it loses some of it's appeal!


Last weekend we trained in the Waitakere Ranges, rather than in the forest, as we needed hills. It was there I realized I was holding up the team. My balance or lack of it, meant that climbing up and climbing down steep terrain I was slower, and needed help, where speed was necessary to complete it in time. A stick would not have helped as this terrain was very steep. I ended up feeling very guilty as I was stopping the people who are going to be walking from training properly for the event. The terrain made me feel dizzy and nauseous and my balance was definitely off – quite dangerous really. However, I didn’t know this would happen until I tried, and I’m still learning my limitations, no matter how annoyed at myself for having some.

So…. I will continue to train with the team in the forest. We don’t know how many will drop out due to injury or sickness as yet, and I still may be needed on the day. If I am not needed, I will be part of the support crew getting food and drinks throughout that 36 hours. I may even walk some of the way with the team as one extra person is allowed to walk one leg of the challenge.

But for the training that takes place in the Waitakere ranges where it’s steep and rough – I will still pitch up. I may walk for an hour or two with the group, but will then go back to the car and meet them at checkpoints with food and water so they don’t have to carry so much during the day. This suits me fine as I will be able to take my camera gear into the forest and take proper photos. My camera gear is too heavy if I’m training, the photos I have been taking have been with my daughter’s Fuji point and shoot.

1000 year old kauri Tree in Waitakere Ranges walk. This tree was so tall/big I had to take 3 photos on wide angle, and stitch them together later.

I’m still pretty proud of myself that despite my disability, I’ve still achieved some amazing results. Just to give you an idea of what having no balance means, when I walk, nothing stays still. Everything moves up and down as you move up and down. Much like looking through a video camera with no image stabilizer. And yes – you can feel quite seasick at times. I’m proud to still be part of the team, and if I don’t walk this year, I’ll try again next year.

In the meantime – if you would like to make a donation to my team, no matter how small, it would be really appreciated. Just go to the following website and click on the green ‘make a donation’ button. Oxfam Website to make a donation. Or if you click on the orange Support a Team logo at above right, this will take you right to our teams donation page. Your support will be invaluable, and you will be supporting me as part of that team.

In Training

Whose idea was it to do the Oxfam Challenge – to walk 100km in 36 hours? It did really sound like a good idea at the time – but now I’m questioning our sanity!

We started training about 6 weeks ago, and it started off okay, with a 2 hour amble through Woodhill Forest. But things are getting really serious now, and last Sunday our amble got up to a 6 hour hike. That’s 30km. And to think we have walk almost four times that distance to complete the challenge!

Our group consists of coach Derek, and 7 of us ‘girls’ and Molly the dog. I’m sure Derek is the envy of every male in New Zealand. He gets to go walking with 7 females every single weekend, for hours at a time, listening in to our conversations that get smuttier and smuttier every week. He tells us he’s going to wear earplugs the next walk, but he never does, so I am of the opinion that he enjoys being corrupted!

Being out in the forest for so long brings challenges to all of us. There are no toilets, spas, masseuse’s, manicurists, in fact, the forest is devoid of anything civilized. Derek encourages us on our walks by telling us he has organized 9 hot firemen to massage our legs at the end of the walk. We are always severely disappointed to find them ‘called away to a fire’!


Up until our six hour walk last Sunday, I was always able to ‘hold on’ to my drinking water until we got back to civilization, which was a relief as because of my lack of balance (no balance nerves intact), I cannot squat without falling over. I don’t relish the thought of going head first, or bottoms up in the middle of my ablutions, for obvious reasons!

However, I have to drink while out walking, as becoming dehydrated is not an option, and 6 hours is a rather long time to hold on, and in the end, I had to give in! I strayed from the path, went deep into the woods, and found a tree stump. Perfect. Feeling very relieved, I rearranged my clothes and popped back onto the path again and started walking. Now everyone that knows me, knows I have an aversion to needles of any kind, (especially ones that come near my ears)! Within minutes, walking became very uncomfortable. I even looked around to see if my ENT doc was following me!! But no, it seems that several tonnes of pine-needles had removed themselves from the tree-stump, and were now embedded in my nether regions.

I’m wondering if I should be carrying around some stickers/signs to slap on to the tree-stumps deep deep in the woods ‘This stump has been used as a ladies room, please do not use as a picnic table’!

The walk got harder. Derek decided to make us walk along the beach for a while. Having no balance makes walking on sand extremely difficult for me. The tide was in too, which meant there was no ‘hard’ sand – just sand that you sank into up to your ankles, which was really hard on your muscles. After half an hour  we were finally allowed to head back into the forest. Up a really steep steep dune, then down an even steeper one meant I fell over about 3 or 4 times. Now, not only did I have moss and pine-needles in my nether regions, but I was also covered in black sand, stuck to me like glue. No amount of ‘dusting off’ removed any sand.

Oh well – we had a break, drank some more water, ate a bit of food. I had my second protein bar – big mistake. Saluma brought out Christmas Crackers and marshmellow Santas. I love Saluma! The Christmas cracker contained the usual paper hat, toy, and joke. As I had no sunhat, I popped the green paper hat on my head, and wore it all the way back to the carpark.

It started raining. I moved the paper hat over my cochlear implant microphone to stop it getting wet. Brilliantly perfect for the job :) But - the dye of the hat ran. When I got home, I found I was a little green around the gills!

The protein bars are excellent. Even though they look like something the dog ate… twice (The chocolate ones especially)! They keep me from feeling hungry, and give me loads of energy. Energy in, energy out unfortunately. The now peaceful forest walk, is peppered with small thermonuclear explosions. I thought I was doing well, Molly the dog is a great sport, taking the blame well. Until Derek came up and said to me… ‘Was that you?’

“No”

“Are you sure? I wondered if it were Molly, but she’s on the other side of the road!”

“Welllllllll maybe one!!! But mine don’t smell so how do you know?”

“You need to get your sinuses checked!!”

It couldn’t have been that bad – as everybody survived, and we all finished. Exhausted, hot, thirsty, and wondering how on earth are we going to walk four times that distance!!

Lastly – for those who want to see where we walk – the beautiful pristine forest, that smells of Christmas, with pine needles covering sandy trails, deer that cross our paths, and cheeky fantails that come down and chatter at us, then take a good look at the following image…