Running with terminal cancer
Preparing for my latest race, I understand why my trainer calls it pack and panic
My running coach Rory Coleman calls it “pack and panic” and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing all this week (and to be honest most of last week too).
I have been sticking to his training plan of running various distances daily, plus hills, gym, sprints etc, but that’s finished now because, as you read this, I will be starting my next adventure in a tiny island country off the west coast of Africa called São Tomé.
It’s a 200km jungle ultramarathon race in a country that has never held such an event before.
What kit to take when I’m only allowed 10kg for the week including all my food, sleeping bag, running gear, plus copious amount of bug spray is the reason for my first panic. The second cause for panic – or should I say fear – is all about what I might find when I get there.
Not only are there eight types of snake, including the lethal black cobra, but a whole multitude of crawling and flying bugs such as malaria-carrying mosquitoes, tsetse and tumbu flies, jiggers, sandfleas, hookworm and more.
There is no respite in the sea either as they have sand tiger sharks, prickly sea urchins, razor-sharp coral and dangerous currents.
Isn’t it enough to run 200km in 30C jungle heat without all that lot to contend with? You can see why I’m panicking! “So, why are you going?” you ask? Because it’s good to scare yourself a bit from time to time, while hopefully raising more funds for Prostate Cancer UK.
I hope this week you too take on something different. I know the buzz of putting your foot on a start line is enough to make you feel alive.
Until next week,
Kev