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| Rising with the Sun to start training! |
My last blog just 4 weeks ago was after I had completed two MTB trail rides in the Scottish Borders.
Today, I've finished a 41mile cycle and am now preparing for a 15km trail run tomorrow morning.
In the last 4 weeks I've enjoyed a camping holiday with the family (combining my training too including a barefoot run on the beach), a walk on Hadrian's Wall with my Dad and various Duathlon/Triathlon sessions in the gym.
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| 'Sea Mist' rolling in - not even 7am! |
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| Trail running ;-) |
With such gorgeous scenery, it would have been criminal to train indoors and so getting up early, cycling / running or hill walking with the family was very much on the agenda.
It has been a fantastic 4 weeks with some really good progress made.......but not without it's calamities!
Day 1 of our holiday and as we are driving to the North West Highlands with the family bikes and luggage strapped to the roof of the car we pull into a rest area and attempt to park under some covered parking for shade.
Yes - that's right, the covered area was lower than the bikes on the roof and fortunately only a few scratches and dents were left to show of my stupidity!
Calamity number 2 was on our second night when the wind blew so strong that the front of our tent blew in. A hasty repair and tighten of pegs / lines managed to see us through.......until night 3!
Gusting winds picked up again and this time the poles were snapped and the only option was to move all belongings and the kids into one bedroom and tie what was left of the tent to the car to stop it blowing away. As the wind settled, some quick internet research identified a cheap replacement tent some 70 miles away....so we all got up early and headed off to get it.
After the shock and tiredness wore off, it actually became a laughing point for us all and added a little 'excitement' for us all.
The last challenge was entirely of my own making. Setting off at 3pm to cycle 10k to the start of a trail that runs up to a waterfall, I make good time and secure my bike outside the local pub.I put my rucksack on my back and set off running up the trail. After about a mile I decide to check for the key to my bike lock. Can't find it. Bag emptied all over the trail - still cant find it! Oh well, it's just a mile back and decent trail, I should find it easily.
Passing several walkers, none have the key. I get back to the bike and scour the area around my bike. No sign. I check in the pub if someone has handed in. No! Dammit - this means one thing, boltcutters! I run over to a store on the adjacent pier and they ring around and find me some boltcutters. I get back to the bike and put the cutter to work and just as the first cut is complete......an elderly couple come past and say 'Have you lost your key? Does it look like this one?'They'd found it on the trail and when I ran back past them, didnt think it would be mine - despite the triathlon suit in the same colours as the bike and a helmet attached to my rucksack! Ah well! That'll teach me in future!
The following day I did the same cycle and run only this time with my key being kept a little safer!
For a whole week, the entire family lived and breathed entirely outdoors and loved it!
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| It's not the Maldives, Gulf Coast or Seychelles.....its the West Coast of Scotland! |
If there is any greater inspiration for me to demonstrate strength against adversity or the courage to keep going when the easiest thing is to give up then I have yet to find it beyond my Dad.
19 years ago he suffered a diving accident whilst in the South of France. He ended up being alone, in a country where he didn't speak much of the language and paralysed from the waist down.
Upon arriving back in the UK, he underwent hyperbaric chamber treatment but was still immobilised and told he would not walk again.
Each day when I went to the hospital to see him, I'd find him doing all he could to drag himself down the corridor - refusing assistance and battling to regain his former strength.
He'd fall down seven times....and pick himself up eight times!
And here we were, walking in some reasonably difficult terrain and talking about nothing in particular, just enjoying the view and the journey, as well as the history of the Wall itself. I was walking with a man who was told he wouldn't walk again and had since suffered a heart attack and undergone a hip replacement.
So after searching for a hero, someone who I could look to and could try and emulate their Herculean feats of endurance, strength and courage......delving through text, internet and book......I had finally found all that I hoped to recreate in the very person from whose gene pool I partly originate from.
If I can demonstrate half of my Dad's strength, single minded focus on achieving his goal and determination to keep going no matter how hard then the 105miles of the Scotland Coast to Coast will be a breeze!
My last blog before the event will be a short one in 3 weeks time. If you want to keep track of progress, follow me during the event or event show your support for our Veterans by making a donation to my fundraising page, the details are below:
Twitter: @sportster75
Facebook: Martin.Kelly.3192
Just Giving: www.justgiving.com/martin-kelly1
