I have been running regularly since the 1980s. I started to run to get fitter for Badminton my main sport of that time. I saw an advert for a local 10-mile fun run and thought I can do that. I took part and finished in 85 min. I got talking to a few members of the local running club and joined. The badminton disappeared.
I gradually improved and took part in the St Albans marathon in 1987 and finished in 3:17 on a hilly course. My times came down for the half marathon setting a PB of 1:27and 10 mile PB of 1:04 over the next year or so when I finally got accepted for the London Marathon in 1989 something I had wanted to do, ever since I saw the first one on TV. I took part in a training race of 20 mile and finished in 2:20 and thought I might be able to get near 3 hours for the Marathon. Just after that race I started to feel unwell with extreme fatigue and a few other symptoms but I pressed on and did the marathon any way and struggled to finish in 3:45
After medical tests I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis a nasty but thankfully not life threatening illness. This made me rethink my running and I stopped for a while until the illness was largely under control. But I thought this is not going to beat me. So I thought how can I continue to run as I nearly always have to make emergency stops when I run, I run largely on tracks trails and quiet roads by myself since then.
in October 2008 I had a bad relapse and was admitted to hospital for tests, on 11 Nov I was given the devastating news that I had developed bowel cancer and required major surgery. this was scheduled for 31 Dec but on Christmas day I was rushed to in for emergency surgery to remove my large bowel I am then started the comeback trail walking and slow jogging at the first but improved daily but going through Chemo until late July 2009 was tough and kept knocking me back.
August 17th 2009 scan results were all clear so now I just have to get over the side effects of the Chemo and get back to full fitness
October 2009 took part in Great Eastern Run Half Marathon and completed in 1:54. Now training for the 2010 London Marathon and aiming to get under 4 Hrs
I hope this shows other people that you can achieve despite illness if you are determined enough
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joggersaurus
