Tentative post injury run

Route 3m, road and trail, hilly
Weather: warm and sunny :)

Had a 'photo-shoot' with TES magazine this morning to try and help raise the profile of my fundraising for Epilepsy Action. Highly embarrassing, prancing around on the Chevin with a guy asking me to do fake jumps off rocks etc. Actually the photographer, Ben, was a nice guy and interesting to talk to. Don't know what the final shot will look like or if it will definitely go to print, but I hope so as it might help to increase my sponsorship but more importantly it will definitely help to increase awareness of epilepsy. I've spoken to lots of people rcenetly who have asked why I am supporting Epilepsy Action and what my personal connection is.

Whilst I was on holiday in Croatia last year, I was fortunate to meet a really amazing French family. The son was called Mathieu and he was 17. He had quite profound learning difficulties and severe epilepsy. I used to throw the ball round in the pool with him most days and would be greeted most morning with the familiar shout of "Philippe! Philippe!". One day while playing, he just sank. No warning signs, nothing. He had had a seizure and was drowning right in front of me. Once we all realised what was happening, he was dragged out of the pool and was looked after by his mum and dad. He was fine and woke up a couple of hours later without any recollection of the events. But it shook me.

It also made me proud to have met his parents. They remained calm throughout the incident (he has daily seizures) and treated Mathieu with complete compassion and understanding. The events made me realise how little I knew about epilepsy and when I returned home, began to look into it more seriously. My friend and fellow WHW runner Paul Tranter is fundraising manager for Epilepsy Action and it seemed like the perfect charity to raise some money for and a way to nudge other people to find out a bit more about this very common condition.

It is due to my fundraising that I feel under such pressure to complete this adventure I have set myself and why I was so sure I'd made the right decision to pull out of the fling last week.

I ran 3 tentative miles this afternoon and had no discernible knee problems. I am sitting at the moment, laptop on lap and icepack on knee. I am feeling concerned about the run in June - of course I am. But I know that I will give it my best shot and am determined to finish this race.

I'll try a bit further tomorrow and see again how that goes. Drop me a line of encouragement if you have the time!

Cheers.