Noisy Nature

Back in the Netherlands and another 6am start.  Not a bad sleep but the birds in the inner courtyard garden were deafening this morning.  Tweet bloody tweet!

A chillyish but picture-postcard clear morning with a pink tinge to the dawn; the Spring forward hour has been caught up and I’m out of the season of running in the dark with nothing but the street and bridge lights to keep me company.  Every time I cross a bridge now I get the morning reflections shimmering in the canal water.

Out to the Keizersgracht and all the way along past the Westerkerk and the Leidsegracht to the Spiegelgracht.  Right and right again onto the inside of the Prinsengracht and all the way back to Anjeliersstraat.  Not complicated but all the lovelier for it.

5.1km, 25:35

Ninjastorm

Another Sitges Sunny Sunday, out about 9:30 and surprised to see that the garden was wet – at first I assumed that the neighbours had been doing some early-morning and overenthusiastic watering, then realised that it was wet across the street too, and every plant I ran past was soaking me.  Totally clear sky so the shower must have snuck in earlier in the morning and its clouds dissolved by the sun.

A bit more energy this morning after a lovely dinner at the Chinese restaurant in St Pere on the way home from the skating competition in The Middle Of Nowhere (Rebecca came 9th out of 17 doing her new routine in the next category).

I just went down to the Paseo, lots of people about – ran past the mayor and about a hundred other runners.  Lovely cool day after that elusive rain.  My back was aching a bit today so hope that clears up before the 6am starts to come.

5km, 24:37.

Why we do what we do

Yesterday Sarah spoke to her mum in the evening; her dad had had his yearly health assessment.  His mental capacity has reduced quite a lot.  Physically he’s no worse.

One of the vilest facets of this cruellest disease is it plays with your guilt.  It makes you feel bad for wishing it to be just… over.  You don’t want your loved one to be any worse, but if they don’t get any worse, how long are they going to suffer (and how long are you going have to suffer them suffering)?  It chews up one’s humanity and decency and twists it into something alien.

Which is why we’re here of course – why I’m running every day (seems and of course is utterly trivial compared to what Sarah’s parents are going through) and why we have to find a cure for this abomination in our lives, before it’s our turn.  Or, if we don’t get there in time, at least before our children’s turn.

Last night’s beer and bravas lying pretty heavily on yours truly this morning but we have another busy Saturday with fencing, swimming, a birthday party and a skating competition to fit in, so I knew that it would be a case of blowing out the cobwebs down at the Paseo.  Got out at about 9am.  Another stunning day in Sitges – no cloud, no wind, feels like it might be the year’s first real scorcher.  Down Av Sofia to the Calipolis and along to the mermaid, back towards the Terramar, spin round and home via Kansas.

5.05km, 25:21.

The Mediterranean diet

Suffering slightly this morning due to the Mediterranean diet consumed last night – lots of cava, a beer, some olives and a few crisps.  Dunno why everyone says it’s so healthy.

Went out not quite so early but still soon after the family left for the day.  Time not so fast due to logistics dictating a brief pit stop at the cashpoint!  10/10 for multitasking.

A lively crowd down at the Paseo this morning.  A big bus tour group of oriental tourists (no sign to tell me where they were from exactly) was out along near the Terramar and hopefully one of them has a photo of his mate with a photo-bombing of a rather sweaty bloke in a day-glo shirt running up and grinning manically behind him.  Quite incongruous to see smartly-dressed visitors down on the rocks collecting souvenir shells.  They chose a good day for it.  Loads of other runners and sunseekers out too.

Another beautiful day.  No clouds but an atmospheric morning mist lying over the town as I ran back along from the Playa Golf.  As you get closer it looks like the layers of the beaches, Sitges town, Aiguadolç with the masts of the boats in the harbour and beyond are all separate layers on a half-finished Photoshop project.  With that and the sun shining on the waves it’s just a gorgeous place to do your 5-ks-a-day.

5.08km, 25:58

Nobody said it would get any easier

Another early one today, so as soon as the family left for their learning or work, off I went.  It had been raining in the night so a cool morning, on-and off overcast.  Still t-shirt and shorts weather (for running in anyway!), and a full-on god-sky over the Med as I was running back along towards Kansas.

Funny how some days it’s a total breeze, and today I was struggling to keep up a pace way slower than the last two days.  Time for breakfast.

Along C/Vilanova with the return trip of the school run coming towards me, past La Masia, into the Vinyet and along to Terramar (park then hotel), along to the patos, back to Kansas and home.

5km, 24:46.

Another report in the news about the possible Alzheimer’s breakthrough: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-32315763

Ignorance is bliss

Yesterday I sent the link to the 100th day Northern Echo story to a friend at work who has sponsored me in the past.  She read it and then we had this chat (edited a bit for spelling).  It made me realise that there are (probably lots of) people who have no idea what the effects of Alzheimer’s are and how the sufferer is affected.  It’s not just “being a bit doolally” which I think is what my friend imagined before our chat.

Her:
So does he still talk to you and your wife, even if he doesn’t recognise you?
Or would he refuse to do so?
Me:
No he just babbles.
Her:
What would he do the whole day then if he doesn’t recognise anyone?
I mean can he still be normal?
But just not recognise people around him?
Me:
He sits in his chair, no he can’t do anything
he can’t walk
Her:
that’s so sad and pretty bad to hear
Me:
he doesn’t know what’s going on around him
Her:
Pretty sad.  Are there moments like half an hour
Me:
No
Her:
When he’s himself?
Me:
No
Her:
never?
Me:
used to be
he’d say one thing like “you look nice”
then go off into his own world
but not anymore
he doesn’t know who Sarah is or her mum
Her:
do you guys remember like when was the last time he chatted with you for like 15 minutes or so
has it been long time
I feel so sad hearing all this
Me:
no that would be maybe 5 years ago
it’s a terrible thing
after working all your life, looking forward to retirement
you end up having your own life ruined and that of your family
Her:
yeah its pretty cruel
You don’t even know what goes on for him, or inside him
10 years back he was okay?
Me:
yes, well it was starting then probably, I remember when we got married 9 years ago it was starting really
Her:
and the doctors couldn’t do anything in that stage?
there should be something when it starts?
Me:
no, they didn’t know what it was
and there’s no cure anyway
hence the Alzheimer’s Research stuff
they’re trying to find causes/cures
Her:
yeah that’s bad
Me:
basically if you get it that’s it, your life is over

.. so that was the chat.  I felt happy to have at least tried to explain to one person what the disease is like for the people affected, but sad to think that there are people who just don’t know.  (And of course why would you – you only know if you know!)

Today I went out as soon as everyone had left for school/work.  Down Av Sofia to the Calipolis, along to the church, slap the stone under the mermaid, along to the Terramar, through the Vinyet to the Ermita, up to C/Vilanova and home.  Another lovely day and a nice fast pace again – must do a leisurely one soon because my bum aches!  TMI, I realise.

Back working and I see that there’s some possibly exciting news for a breakthrough.  Please let it be so:

http://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/arginine-deprivation-linked-to-alzheimers-disease-in-mice/

5.45km, 25:33.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Another mental work day, this time it was almost 2pm by the time I got away from conference calls and online meetings.

Stunning day here in Sitges.  Warm but not yet hot (the summer runs are going to be interesting) and completely cloudless.  I mean not even a wisp of white, apart from the odd contrail.

I took a slightly more circuitous route to the Paseo to try to avoid having to run past the house for a bit at the end to make it a complete 5k (not circuitous enough though!) and kept the pace nice and high without really pushing it.  Nice to be able to make this under 4:40 average.

More people on the beach than yesterday – must be great to have the time to go down there and actually sunbathe, especially when you can pretty much have whichever chunk of beach you like without worrying about someone walking on your towel or knocking over your beer on the way past.  Are there really people coming on holiday already with sunbathing in mind?  Surely only the members of the Blind Optimists Society – still touch and go even here in mid April.  Not complaining though, just wondering what do these people DO?  (And can I do it too please).

Along to the ducks and back to Kansas and home.

5km, 23:15.

Take me, not the iPod

Great to be back in Sitges for a sunny, warm lunchtime run.  Travelling back yesterday afternoon/evening left us all tired and with a very late night all round but thankfully without any hiccups.

Back to a very busy work day.  Tried a couple of times to get away and eventually fled the house at about 1pm while most people were presumably on their lunch break.

Utterly lovely and utterly uneventful as far as the run went – down Av Sofia to the Calipolis, along to the patos (saw a sum total of two, not a great welcome home display I have to say), back to Kansas and home.  Beautiful sunny and warm day, nary a cloud, quite a few moderately brave souls on the beach and lots of walkers and a few other runners treading the concrete.

My iPod couldn’t take the idyllic normality of the situation though and decided to cut out after a minute’s play – I could start it playing again but it would stop after a minute.  No low battery, no special setting accidentally invoked as far as I can see, just this exceptionally infuriating behaviour*.  We have iPod nano 6th gens which you can only get secondhand now and I wasn’t looking forward to spending time on eBay bidding for one, as they’re getting rarer and more desirable as old ones pack in and people buy the newer model.  I love them because they’re the size of a watch so I have a special strap for mine and it sits snugly next to the GPS on my left wrist.  Sarah has one too but hers is full of Barry Manilow and Take That which would soon send me running into the Med á la Reggie Perrin.

To cut an enormously trivial and (ok, I’ll cut the suspense) inconsequential story short (“Too late!  Too late!” I hear you scream through cyberspace), I reset the settings on the dashed thing when I got home and while typing this it’s been feeding me with nice noisy music without stopping.  Phew.

5.2km, 25:07.

* just reminds me of a story from this weekend – my daughter loves taking the mick out of my wife’s accent, so a weekend in the NE of England transformed her, temporarily, into a total pronunciation Nazi.  Alas her vocabulary isn’t quite up to it – she couldn’t work out why we said that “behaviour” really is pronounced “behave yer” and not “behave you”!

Not alone

Found out yesterday that there’s another 5-k-a-day-er, a guy in the Lake District who’s running every day to raise money for research into Parkinson’s Disease after losing his dad to it last year.  Would be interesting to know if there are any more of us and where/why they’re doing it.

A travelling day today so as ever good to get the run out of the way.  The GPS watch was playing silly buggers this morning so I ended up standing on the main road waving my left arm about, trying to keep my legs warm and cursing technology in general.

Sarah wasn’t coming with me so I just dashed towards Birtley – so past the Lambton Worm and the Barley Mow, past the Birtley Leisure centre and turned round at – oh the glamour – the caravan showroom.  And back into a headwind – great joy.

A bit of sun when I set off but soon clouded over and now it’s drizzly and yukky.

5km, 24:48

Do it to Julia

About three too many bottles of San Miguel and a big old belly full of Auntie Lisa’s fantastic Beef Madras meant that this morning’s run was something I would happily pass on.  To add freezation to injury, yesterday’s balmy spring morning was replaced with a biting cold that sent me scurrying back inside to put on another layer.   The forecast when I left Amsterdam on Thursday was for a warm weekend so I left gloves and most other warm stuff behind, doh.

Again Sarah was up for the run which meant we could be more adventurous than a simple 2.5km-and-back dash towards Birtley.  We headed down to the Riverside Park (through which we ran yesterday on the way back from the care home) and dodged the dog-walkers as we headed to the river.

On coming out into the open park we found ourselves in the middle of a park run – about 100 or so other runners in an organised 5km run around the paths.  Quite surreal but rather jolly.  Obviously we weren’t doing their route so we did two full laps with them then turned off just before the finish to run back along to where we came in and then past a slightly bemused steward out towards the main road.

While running back along we heard the sound of bagpipes and while looking for the guy in the kilt and regalia we realised it was coming from a girl walking along with her dog and drinking a can of Irn Bru.  I’m not even making it up.  Don’t know if it was a mobile phone or if she had one of those bluetooth speakers and couldn’t wait to get home before a blast of the highland pipes.

We set a good pace in the park but then the road back up to Sarah’s mum’s slowed us down again.

Yesterday’s 100th day celebrations made page 90 of the Northern Echo, so surely stardom is just around the corner.

6.56km, 36:02.