I’m in the intensive (for me) phase of my training for the Leeds half marathon, which is on 8th May. This means between 6 and 8 miles a day on the new secret training path I recently found, plus some weight training or time on the rolling road, depending on what day it is and how much I damaged my tricep that morning.
I’m still raising money for nia and there’s a new crowdfunding page for this and all future events, here.
I raised nearly £1500 with the Sheffield half marathon, which I’m really pleased with. I’m not expecting to reach the same this time, because the events are so close together in time. I’ll be pulling out all the stops raising funds for the Great North Run in September, though, so be warned.
As always, take a look at my fundraising page. I’m doing wheelchair half marathons (three this year, plus sundry 10k events) to raise money for nia, a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.
I made it! I’m skiving today and then back in training again tomorrow.
The Sheffield course is challenging for wheelchairs (I saw only one other) because fully the first half is an absolutely relentless hill. That’s not in itself a problem, I could have kept going all day, but I was… not fast. There’s a mechanical limit when I’m fighting both gravity and momentum. I need to work on that.
But then the second half is back down the hill again and the only challenge was not causing mayhem by mowing people down en masse. In fact, I got a friction burn from my pushrim trying to slow myself down. That part was brilliant fun. Well, not the burn part, the weaving around people at unsafe speed part.
It was good, I enjoyed it and I wasn’t particularly stiff or tired the next day, somehow.
Because the course is atypical, I didn’t learn as much as I’d have liked about how to do wheelchair half marathons. The next one – Leeds in May – is a bit more representative. I’ll have a better idea then about what sorts of time/injury I can expect in the future.
I did learn quite a lot about racing on roads, though. I’ll write something about that soon.
Thanks so much to everyone who donated, the current total stands at £1360!
The cause is such a good one and I know that money will be well spent. There’s still time to donate in the coming days, but soon I’ll be switching to a more long-term donation page which is not tied to any particular event. News about that soon. Thanks again, everyone! I’ll be begging again soon enough.
I’m as ready for the Sheffield half marathon tomorrow as I’m ever going to be. I’m resting this morning, getting plenty of carbs, protein and fluid, then travelling down to Sheffield this afternoon and staying overnight.
I did another half marathon once, back in the days when my legs worked, but that was 30 years ago so I’m not entirely sure what to expect on the day. There will be considerably more people and organisation, this time, I’m sure. The instructions say to go to the area with sign that’s the same colour as my race number, so I’m going to trust that the staff know what they are doing and just meekly go along with that. A bit like airports; I worked out years ago that airports are incredibly stressful places…. unless you turn off the greater part of your brain and just trudge along in the general direction the signs tell you to. So I’m going to do that. Only without the trudging.
I’m fairly confident that I’ll finish, but I don’t have the slightest idea what sort of time I’m likely to get. Neither do I have a goal. This isn’t because I haven’t been training properly, it’s because I don’t know quite what to expect of the road surface. How rough will it be? What sort of camber? Slopes, I can manage, but will I be able to get into a decent rhythm or will I be fighting the whole way? The broken and overgrown pavements around here are not necessarily a good match to the roads of Sheffield.
Having said that, I did find an excellent new training path that’s likely a lot closer to the race conditions than anything I’ve used regularly so far. Annoyingly, I only found it two days ago. I’ll write about it in a bit, because there are some useful things to learn from it.
Assuming I survive the course, we’ll be going to the worst pub in Sheffield on Sunday evening. If anyone fancies a pint, that is where you can buy me one 🙂
People have been amazingly generous in their sponsorship. At the time of writing, they have donated £1315 for nia. I’m touched and I’m heartened.
But it doesn’t end here. I also have the Leeds half marathon and the Great North Run to do this year, plus the Middlesbrough 10k. I’ll be back after Sunday with a new donation page that’s not tied to any specific event and I’ll be using that for general fundraising efforts from then on.
Interesting absolutely nobody but me, I am sure, I’ve decided not to use my Freewheel attachment in the Sheffield half marathon on Sunday.
Freewheel
I did a five mile training push today, starting with the Freewheel on. But then I ended up going back over two ~one mile stretches with the Freewheel both on and off: one stretch with horrible broken pavements and a terrible camber and one nice smooth bit.
The verdict, as I’d expected, was that the Freewheel is great on the dodgy parts but slows me down on the smooth. It’s not even just the weight: when the wheel wasn’t fitted to the front of my chair it was clipped to the bar on the back. I just didn’t quite get the pushing efficiency I’m capable of without the Freewheel.
Great accessory for off-road and dodgy pavements, probably not for roadraces where, I’m trusting, the surfaces will be a lot better.
There’s still time to sponsor me for the Sheffield half marathon on Sunday 27th March to raise money for nia, a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.
The Sheffield half marathon is at the end of the week (Sunday 27th March)!
My race number, artfully cropped
I think I’m about as ready as I’ll ever be. I’m pretty sure I’ll get around the course, barring incident or injury, but I’m not expecting to set any records. I (already) broke the steering assembly on my racing chair (it’s fine, I’m just waiting for a part), so I’ll be using my day chair. That’s probably safer for everyone concerned anyway, as I haven’t managed to get as much practice in the racing chair as I’d have liked.
This is the chair I will be using
It also makes the logistics easier. I can fit both chairs in the car, but not if I also want to fit my wife in the car. None of the choices are very good: take two cars, have one of us use the train, hire a trailer, hire a van. The van hire option sounded good, but (unsurprisingly) hiring a van with hand controls is not a particularly straightforward process, so my wife would have had to drive both ways.
Training-wise, I feel in decent form. I had the weekend off and my schedule this week is only moderately intensive. I have a slight strain to a tendon from weight training last week and I don’t want to aggravate it. It won’t get in the way of my pushing action anyway, but It’s best to be on the safe side. I’ll be alternating between training with the rolling road:
My rolling road: I call it Roly.
And an actual road, which I assume you don’t need a picture of. The difference is like that between an exercise bike and a real bike. The former is good for building strength and endurance, but it doesn’t really prepare you for real race conditions. Not that I really know what real race conditions are, of course, since this will be my first.
I’ll also make the final decision on whether to use my freewheel attachment or not:
Freewheel attachment
The Freewheel attaches to the footrest, making the chair into a kind of trike. It has several advantages, particularly in dealing with bumps and dodgy cambers, but it also adds a fair bit of weight. I’ll do the same 7-mile course twice this week, once with the Freewheel and once without and make my decision after that. It’s not that I haven’t tried the same a few times before, this is just a final assessment.
My only real concern is that pain can fluctuate wildly with my condition. This doesn’t affect performance directly (in fact, exercise is about the only thing that helps the pain) but it does affect my sleep, which can hit performance a lot. I’ll just have to see what happens, although I’ll drag myself around the course no matter what.
I’ll let you know how the final week of training goes!
People have been amazingly generous so far, but if you feel like donating to an excellent cause, there is still time to do so here. nia, is a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.
Even in these troubled times, it’s difficult to imagine a more worthwhile or important cause.
My first half marathon is coming up at the end of the month! On some days I think I’m ready and on others, woefully unprepared. I think I’ll get around the course, which is the limit of my current expectation.
Last week was supposed to be Extreme Training Week, but I had a bit of a setback due to an especially bad flareup of pain and much subsequent loss of sleep. In the end, I did a little less training than usual. Oops.
So this week is the All-New Even Better Extreme Training Week. I’d better get started.
I’ll be starting a last big push for fundraising, too. The crowdfunder is doing well, but I’m hoping to reach £1000. Please consider donating if you can. Once this round is over, I’ll be looking at ways to raise money for nia and related charities on a more regular basis leading into the various other events I have planned this year (and subsequent years). Any suggestions are welcome!
As always, take a look at my fundraising page. I’m doing wheelchair half marathons (three this year, plus sundry 10k events) to raise money for nia, a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.
Every year there are attempts to shift the focus of International Women’s Day to men. Let’s not stand for that. It’s one day of the year and needs to remain firmly about women and women’s issues.
IWD needs to bring attention to the violence and abuse suffered by women around the world. It needs to highlight issues of particular importance to women such as reproductive rights and sex equality. It needs to condemn current attempts to prevent women from organising politically as a sex class.
One of the most potent tropes of misogyny is the dismissal of women’s concerns as secondary to those of any other group. We see this all the time; people are rightly outraged by displays of racism or homophobia or ageism or ableism… but disregard similarly overt sexism and misogyny. It’s breathtaking in both ubiquity and scope.
Currently, women are being coerced into abandoning their safe spaces and services and the language they need to describe their oppression and to organise politically. Their concerns over this are being dismissed with extreme prejudice, cries of “bigot” and “TERF” and their erasure from the public square.
This must stop. Women must have the right to organise politically without pressure to include men. They must have the right to vital spaces and services free from adult males. And they must be free to describe their own oppression without being hounded from social media, their jobs or their homes.
This International Women’s day (8th March 2022), Why not watch Helen, Helen, Sall and Milli on The Mess We’re In at the unusual hour of 7:30pm (UK time) on Tuesday?
It should be great. I won’t attempt to give a full biography for these brilliant women but in case you don’t know them:
Helen Staniland is a feminist and software engineer who was involved with the successful campaign to end the publication of pictures of topless women daily on page 3 of UK tabloid newspapers. She’s a regular presenter, along with Graham Linehan and Arty Morty on the weekly The Mess We’re In podcast. Helen is most famous for The Staniland Question:
which drives trans activists and other gender identity enthusiasts crazy. She’s a tireless pursuer of women’s rights to single-sex spaces and services. She faces daily abuse on social media and responds with indefatigable clarity, wit and patience.
Helen Joyce is the executive editor for events business at The Economist with a PhD in Geometric Measure Theory and is author of the hugely successful Sunday Times Bestseller Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. Her book was described by Richard Dawkins as “Well-written, thoroughly researched, passionate and very brave.” Helen’s compassion, humour and clarity of thought are extraordinary, but she has been subject to a protracted smear campaign for her criticism of gender identity ideology. She recently agreed to debate the trans activist Grace Lavery who displayed all the cowardice expected of him by pulling out, describing Helen as a ‘fascist’ in the process. If you watch the video, I’m sure you’ll see that Helen is about as far from fascist as it’s possible to be.
Sall Grover is a former Hollywood screenwriter and founder of the female-only social media service Giggle. Giggle connects women and girls from 84+ countries for freelance work, roommates, activism, emotional support and more. It’s unique in verifying the sex of its users using AI, supported by a human team. Sall writes: “The idea of Giggle started with a conversation between me and my Mum. I had recently returned from almost ten years in Hollywood, where I had experienced everything the Me Too Movement represents. It was my Mum who said, “There needs to be a way for girls to help girls!” We decided that we would create an app despite having no idea how to do that. But we quickly learned everything we could and, within 7 months had raised almost $500,000 and the app was in development.” Sall is known for her insight and penetrating wit on social media. If you don’t follow her, you’re missing out.
Milli Hill is a freelance journalist and author of the bestselling The Positive Birth Book, Give Birth Like a Feminist and My Period, a book for pre-teens. She has written for the Telegraph, Guardian, ipaper, GoodtoKnow, MailPlus and Mother & Baby. In 2012, Milli set up a grassroots organisation called The Positive Birth Movement. This was a network of free meet-up groups for pregnant women aimed at changing the narrative about childbirth. She ran the network single-handedly until 2021 when she was forced to close it because, in part, of the extreme bullying she received from her own industry. This was due to her objecting to sexed language being removed from issues surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. In particular, she questioned the replacement of ‘women’ with ‘birthing people’. On 25th November 2021 – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls – Milli answered a post on obstetric violence with the perfectly reasonable suggestion:
and has been relentlessly bullied by trans activists and people in her field ever since. But like Sall and the Helens, she refuses to back down.
So like I said, this should be a great show. I hope you enjoy it as much as I expect to.
As always, take a look at my fundraising page. I’m doing wheelchair half marathons (hopefully three this year, plus sundry 10k events) to raise money for nia, a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity which has been delivering services to women, girls and children who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.
It’s a lottery: unless you’re participating as an elite or a member of certain clubs or for one of the official charities, your name goes into a hat. I was lucky enough to get picked at random. So that will be my third half marathon of the year, round about September.
I’m really pleased about this one and glad that I’ll get some practice with the Sheffield and Leeds ones first. Sorry, Sheffield and Leeds, but I still think of Newcastle as my home town, even though I haven’t lived there for more than 20 years. This year is back to the old, now traditional pre-COVID route, I’m looking forward to it.
Just to warn you: I’ll be asking for donations for that, too, also in aid of nia, which raises money to end violence against women and girls. Support them! Even if you don’t do it through my crowd funder! Which you totally should!
nia runs services for women and girls who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution
https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/
I’ve raised nearly £1000 so far for the Sheffield half marathon. There’s a month to go, so I’ll be starting a big push for more donations soon.
And a big push in training, too. Next week is Intensive Training Week. I’ll let you know how that goes…
While I’m waiting for my Motability car to be built, I’m having my wife’s old car adapted to use hand controls. This is being done right now, so I should be more mobile from this weekend. Not that I need to use a car much, I go most places in my chair, under my own steam. But it will be good to get my racing chair out to safer and flatter places while I get used to it.
I’d expected the hand controls to be electronic and was a little suspicious. A lifetime spent working in software has made me prefer simple, low-tech, elegant solutions where possible and it turns out these adaptations are that. They’re basically a rod and a set of hinged joints attached to a lever: pull to accelerate, push to brake. I’m also getting a ball fitted to the steering wheel.
If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Either wheelchairs take a lot more maintenance than I ever expected, or I’m particularly rough on mine. I suspect it’s both.
On the way home from the hospital the other day I was forced to go through a pretty deep puddle. This is always annoying because my gloves are instantly soaked. It’s quite unpleasant and would probably lead to blisters if my hands weren’t already basically like hooves.
The main problem, though, was that a couple of miles down the road, my chair started grinding. By the time I got home, it was really loud and I could feel the vibration through my hands. Since I’m me, I became convinced that I’d somehow caused irreparable damage when I put on some new rear wheels recently, even though that would be more or less impossible. But when I got home, and with impressively slip-shod diagnostic technique, I worked out that the problem was the castors. Presumably, water got into the bearings.
My new castors, uninterestingly
As they dried out over the next few days, things have improved. I bought some new castors anyway, fitted them today and relegated the old ones to spares. The good news is that the new ones are a lot lighter. Every ounce counts.
So don’t go through puddles, whatever you do. I’m going to order a set of bearings to keep as spares too, because it’s bound to happen again at some point.
