Health – Middle Age Fanclub

Always look on the bright side; Five Things That Made Me Smile in November.

Another month, another search for the little moments of happiness that are always waiting to be found. With daylight in a bit shorter supply this is the time of year that has the chance to affect my mood the most. I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, which isn’t very good, really. So, what made me smile last month?

Puffins return! This was a story I read about a colony of puffins returning to the delightfully named Isle of Muck in County Antrim for the first time in years. Apparently, following a programme of rat eradication that started in 2017, combined with the fact that the council now keeps the vegetation low, thus providing less cover for predators, a small amount of puffins has been seen nesting on the island. Puffins are an at risk breed of seabird, as well as being really cute, so their return and attempts at breeding is a real plus. This made made smile, but nearly as much as when the article also informed me that baby puffins are known as ‘pufflings’!

Football and a bin brings joy to lunch break! Another story I spotted, this one. This is the tale of workers at a factory who have livened up their lunch times by devising a football based game that they spend playing on their break. It was something that they came up with about ten years ago, but a video of it went viral and now the world knows all about it. One of the organisers of the game, Connor Fathers explained that they had just thought, “we’re spending every lunch break just staring at our phones, not talking to each other, not doing anything. There’s got to be more to lunch than this.” And so, bin game was born, the premise being that if the group can keep the ball up four times they can have a shot at the bin to score. You maybe have to watch the video to understand the joy behind it, but this really made me smile because it’s exactly the kind of thing I’d love to be doing in literally any spare moments, let alone lunch times!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0mgm9s3

“Do we have to keep renewing this?” Every year, as part of our efforts to promote reading, the school where I work gives every Year 7 student a free book. They get to choose which book they’d like from a selection and then we order them and have to endure “When’s my book coming?” for several weeks after! My class got theirs in the middle of November and despite the questions and the fact that they all knew that they were getting a book, the reactions were priceless. What made me smile the most was the disbelief that they’d just get to take it home and keep it, with more than one of them going up to our librarian and asking, “Do we have to keep renewing this?”. Let’s just hope that they carry on reading as a result!

Garden mural. This was a story I read about a 94-year-old woman in Somerset who had the front of her house painted over as a garden scene, featuring flowers, a lawn and even insects. The woman, Muriel Baker, says that she can’t garden anymore and so the mural on her house makes it seem like she’s living in a garden instead and gives her the enjoyment that she would get from tending one. All round, just a nice story, really.

Running! The final thing that made me smile last month came on the very final day of November. However, it was a ‘smile’ that had been in the making for a full month or so beforehand. On November 30th, I ran the Leeds Abbey Dash, a 10k race in central Leeds, taking us up past Kirkstall Abbey and then back down to Leeds for the finish. Running wise, it was fairly successful. Given prior illness and injury I was more than happy to run it in just over 54 minutes. Even then though, it was only thanks to the staggered start times that I even made it to the start line as the traffic going into Leeds meant that it took me well over and hour to get there. Thus, I missed my actual start time and had to start two times later, if you get what I mean. Still, I couldn’t help but smile given that I’d only managed to complete two 10ks in training – one at 56 minutes and the next at 55 minutes. Sadly, a day later I put my back up reaching down to pick up some washing! Then I picked up some kind of chest infection which is still refusing to budge more than a couple of weeks later. Sometimes, if you don’t just smile at these things, you’d end up crying!

So, there we have it. Proof positive that there’s always something to turn that frown upside down!

Running: It’s been a funny old year.

When I say ‘it’s been a funny old year’, it’s not been funny at all. For the first couple of months of 2025 I was struggling to shake off the effects of a bug I’d had over Christmas and New year and it just felt like I wasn’t making any progress at all. Running was no fun whatsoever.

By March I’d managed enough training to complete the Wakefield 10k in a reasonable enough time to keep me happy. It went better than I’d imagined it would and that was more than enough. I resolved to get out training and get my fitness levels back up to where they’d been a couple of years before. This had been around the time of having my pacemaker fitted, when strangely enough I’d been the fittest I’d been in decades and was running well, producing faster and faster times week in week out.

Sadly, as this year has progressed, things didn’t particularly change. There was little or no upturn in fortune or fitness and injury followed illness followed injury. If I got really lucky I’d be ill while carrying an injury!

Since March I think I’ve managed to run less than ten 10ks. Only one was in a race; the Leeds 10k which as ever was thoroughly enjoyable. The ones I’ve managed to complete in training have been slow and gruelling. Mostly though, I’ve been restricted to shorter distances with the odd bit of strength work thrown in for good measure. But even the resistance bands have fallen by the wayside. It’s been hard to stay motivated when I’ve been full of cold, feeling sick or nursing my back through a week at work, hoping that it doesn’t just ping and leave me in a world of pain. This happened in August and left me struggling to walk, let alone run! Not content with feeling that it had strained a little in the morning, in the evening I thought that it would be a good idea to start moving heavy bags around only to find that the ‘ping’ happened with the first attempted lift. Absolute agony!

I managed to find renewed motivation going back to work in September as I trained hard to be ready for my local 10k. I’d started off trying to run some quick 5ks before building up distances. Towards the end of September I realised that I hadn’t had my race number through for the 10k that was taking place at the beginning of October. Checking my emails revealed no confirmation though and then the penny dropped; I hadn’t actually entered. I took it as a sign. Still struggling to gain any momentum or fitness I decided just to take my time and train steadily towards the next 10k at the end of November, giving me loads of time to get sharp and ready for a race that is relatively flat and known for the chance it gives for personal bests.

Even then, things just wouldn’t go right. A couple of weeks ago I injured my foot and still have no idea how I did it. One minute I was walking along fine and the next it hurt to put my foot on the ground. That lasted a week before gradually getting better!

Over the last week I’ve been able to get in two runs; a 4 mile and a 5 mile. Neither was hugely quick, but I’m happy to have miles in the legs and on my 5 miler I have to say, I felt strong.

Hopefully, this is the start of just being able to get out running regularly. I managed to get out for a run on our recent holiday in Mallorca, even though I’d planned to go out twice…illness again. I love the change of scenery though and the fact that I can get straight into the pool once I’ve finished, so even just the one run is a bonus! Now, back in chilly England, I’ve got around a couple of weeks to get myself race ready. Maybe there can be a decent ending to my running year yet!

Wish me luck!

Book Review: ‘Outrunning The Demons’ by Phil Hewitt.

Running is one of those subject that can be quite divisive. As runners, we’re sold on its many qualities. It can almost feel like a drug in its addictive nature and despite the pain and the exhaustion, we always come back for more. Worse still, it can also become all that we want to talk about and so, we become ‘running bores’ on top of everything else. Believe me, other people love a running bore!

‘Outrunning The Demons’ is a collection of real-life tales from various runners of all abilities about the reasons why they run and the reasons why running has saved them. There are stories of bereavement, addiction and mental health challenges and all of them highlight the importance of running to those involved. In fact, Hewitt himself turned to running after being mugged and left for dead in 2016, so he’s living proof of the healing qualities of getting out for a run.

Since rediscovering running in my forties I’ve realised its importance in helping me think things through and its values in terms of my mental health. Then, having had a major heart procedure when I hit 50, running has become even more important, giving me at first a recovery goal and since then a lot of the strength needed just to keep going at times.

So ‘Outrunning The Demons’ felt both pertinent and personal to me. There was lots to relate to in these tales, as well as the type of pain and running ‘journeys’ that I couldn’t hope to understand. Among the 34 stories there are elite runners and there are people who only took up running because of the loss of a runner who was close to them. Charlie is a recovering drug addict, Theresa lost her firefighter husband in 9/11 and ran to take his place in a marathon, James an army veteran recovering from trauma in Iraq and Sujan suffers with anxiety brought on by a troubled childhood. All of them looked to running to help them cope again with every day life.

And there are loads more amazing stories to read about here. This is a book that’s as full of inspiration as it is pain. And it’s a book where you can’t fail to care about the people that you read about. So, at times it’s an emotional read. If you’re a fellow runner, you’ll undoubtedly recognise many of the emotions and be able to empathise with the trauma that some of these ordinary folk have endured.

Hewitt’s own tale is startling and perhaps worthy of a book in itself. But instead, he spent time bringing together people from all corners of the globe who have sought out a similar solution when faced with the kind of problems that might otherwise have seen them go under.

‘Outrunning The Demons’ is at times an incredible read. It’s subtitled ‘lives transformed through running’ and is comprehensive in recounting what really are some remarkable transformations. Always interesting and always inspiring, it became hard for me to put down at times. A life affirming read, whether you’re a runner or not.

I give ‘Outrunning The Demons’…

Always Look on The Bright Side: Five Things that Made me Smile in June.

It’s that time again! Time to see if I can help anybody out with a bit of something more upbeat. Every month I make a note of the kind of things that raise a smile in my day and then at the start of the next one, I relay them to you, dear reader. So here are June’s little moments. Oh, and there are seven for the price of five this month!

The sun. Granted, there have been a few days and nights where it has been far too hot, but it’s just lovely to get to this time of year and feel the full warmth of the sun. Especially when you live in northern Britain, where we can go for weeks fully convinced that it’s not actually up there any more. So, despite the fact that it’s led to some pretty sweaty classrooms and a good few uncomfortable sleeps, it’s been lovely to feel the sun again. Here’s hoping that it can stick around for at least a couple of months.

Night time walks. I’ve been struggling to sleep now that the temperature has risen. It’s also affected my running habits; I find running with a pacemaker in this heat can feel absolutely dreadful. And so, I’ve taken to going for walks at night. Usually we’ve been going out after 9pm, either myself and my wife, myself and my son or just all three of us. It isn’t working in terms of helping me sleep, but it’s good as I can’t go out and run so much, so it keeps up a level of fitness. The best of it though, is that it makes for some lovely chats, especially with my son who I don’t always get to chat to, such is his status as bedroom bound typical teenage boy! I really love spending time with my family, so these walks have enabled a bit of that too and that’s definitely something to smile about.

My son finished his GCSEs! This made me smile because it doesn’t seem more than a few minutes since I was helping my wife edge across Leeds to the maternity ward while she was in labour with said son! Fifteen years on – he’s 16 this month – and he’s just finished his formal education. Reason enough to sigh and exhale forcefully at the perceived speed of it all, but also reason enough to smile.

The Leeds 10k. It’s not been a great year running-wise, so far. Just illness after illness and barely enough energy to get through the day, let alone go out running. Thankfully, I focused myself on a month of training, determined to get into a fit enough state to get round the Leeds 10k. And I did it! It was quite a tough one on a relatively warm day, but I got round in a respectable enough time, so I’ll take that. So although I was shattered as I crossed the finish line, it wasn’t long before I was smiling. I’ve written a blog about the day that’s on the link below if you fancy reading about it.

Power Up signs, smiling more and a bloody cricketer! The Leeds 10k.

Discovering Folk Bitch Trio. I listen to a lot of music. Perhaps not as much as before having a family, but still a lot of music. At work, one of my daily rituals involves listening to BBC 6 Music whenever I get a chance. It’s on as soon as my laptop is up and running in the morning and then back on as soon as I have any non contact time. 6 Music plays a huge range of stuff and this means that I’ll inevitably discover stuff that I’ve never heard before. Usually I make a note of the artist and or song on a Post It and then take that home for Alexa to work her magic. The brilliantly named – and brilliant – Folk Bitch Trio are my latest find. They remind me a bit of First Aid Kit and Haim, both of whom I really like.With Folk Bitch Trio, I enjoyed their music and loved their name. All in all, they made me smile partly because of their name and their music, but also because discovering new music or even old stuff that I’ve never heard is always a reason to smile for me.

New runners. Short and sweet, this one. I’d been after some new running trainers for a while now, but didn’t fancy paying ridiculous money. So, I’d been looking for offers and discounts to help me out while reading a lot of reviews to find what might be the best pair for me. I’ve had a pair of Saucony Ride 17s for a while now and love them. However, I’d got a deal on them and they only cost about £70. Anything comparable now was looking like costing me well over £100. And then, out of nowhere, Sportshoes.com sent me an email with 30% off certain brands and after a bit of deliberation I got some new Saucony Ride 18s for £90! They’re bright orange and beautiful and I’m looking forward to wearing them in and covering lots of miles in them!

June’s gone! Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against June. But the reason I’m able to smile about it waving goodbye for another year is that we have two family birthdays in June. Again, it’s not that I don’t like the people or their birthdays. What I don’t like is the pressure I put on myself for buying presents for my wife and the pressure that also comes from my daughter’s birthday, which is always a big deal and comes just two days after my wife’s. Life towards the end of June is just chaotic and so, frankly, I’m smiling again now that it’s July!

So there we have it. Proof that even in the smallest things we can find something to smile about…even when your legs feel like they’re going to fall off and you feel sick while dragging yourself up one last hill!

Power Up signs, smiling more and a bloody cricketer! The Leeds 10k.

Having been forced to miss last year’s Leeds 10k due it falling on the same day as my daughter’s 18th birthday, I was looking forward to this one. It’s an event that I came late to, having only done my first one about 4 years ago, but I always really enjoy the race.

All in all, it was a good day for me. Illness meant that I’d managed less than a month’s training – 7 runs – and only a couple of 10k runs in that time. That said, having pulled out of my last 2 races in April and May, it was nice to feel well enough to even get round one for a change!

I’d been to a gig the night before and so my legs were pretty sore from all that standing and dancing, which resulted in some lovely shin pain all the way around the 10k. Nothing else for it but to grit my teeth and get through it though!

I’d hoped to run it in under 55 minutes, as that was my quickest run in training. Alas, it wasn’t to be! A slow last mile, where I just didn’t quite have the legs to get me up the last couple of hills quickly enough, brought me in slower than I would have liked, but I have to admit to being pretty pleased with my time of 55 and a half minutes.

It’s a brilliant race to do. There’s always lots of support out to cheer you on your way, which actually does help. The route is fairly undulating; some nice flat parts, some lovely downhill stretches, but some nasty hills – particularly coming back into Leeds in the final mile – so it’s a fairly challenging course.

This year, rather than writing some kind of report, talking you through almost every step I take I’ve decided to take a different approach. Sat at home afterwards I had a moment to reflect on some of my favourite bits and some of the things that occurred to me as I plodded my way round the course.

Choirs. There were at least 3 choirs out on the course and all of them gave me, and I daresay thousands of others, a timely boost. The best of them though was outside a parade of shops in Headingley. All wearing black and yellow, all ladies and just sensationally good. I actually ran past applauding. I mean imagine being kind enough to think, let’s get together and sing some songs to those knackered looking people who’ll be going past on Sunday. I just think it’s a lovely thing to do.
A one man band. Near Hyde Park, I think. Just as we were crossing a road to head to a much needed downhill stretch I heard music. Drums, a keyboard, maybe some guitars. And then when I looked it was one bloke playing drums to a background of what I assume was a programmed synthesiser. Just rocking away without a care in the world!
Volunteers. Loads of them. Whether they were at drinks stations or just marshalling along the route, the volunteers are the heart of any event. Sometimes, when you’re feeling pretty shattered and some kind soul in a high viz bib tells you, ‘You’re doing great’ or ‘You’re amazing’ it really helps. Invariably, I’m not but it’s such a lovely thing to hear!
Fancy dress. I’ve never understood the need to run in fancy dress. Don’t get me wrong, I really admire those who do it, but have always felt that it’s enough just dragging myself around without a costume! This year I spotted runners dressed in all manner of costumes; a flamingo, a sloth, a lion complete with mane (this was in about the last half mile and I lengthened my stride, determined not to be beaten by bloody Simba!), a sunflower and a zebra. My son – a little too happily for my liking – also informed me that I was beaten by a man wearing full cricket whites complete with jumper, a bat and all of the padding; a really heavy outfit to run a 10k in on a hot day! It takes a special kind of person to commit to something to that extent!
High 5s. I’m not normally one for a high 5. Not very touchy feely, me. However, whenever I do a race there a families with children who will hold out their hands to get a high 5 from the runners. Again, it’s just another lovely thing about this type of event and I try to go out of my way to indulge at least a few of them. Kids always get a bit of a kick out of it and it’s just really rewarding to hear them laugh or see them smile as you run over. That said, given my sweaty red face, it must be terrifying for them as I approach!
Power Up Signs. The effort that had gone into some of these cardboard masterpieces this year was amazing. If you’re not in the know people sometimes hold signs saying ‘Power Up Here’ or something similar while watching these races. The idea is – like a video game – you touch the sign and receive a ‘power up’. This year people had drawn Sonic on them, characters from Mario and all manner of other stuff. And they looked great. Sadly though, they don’t actually work!
And finally…smiling! The amount of smiling faces who turn out to give some encouraging is always a real positive and I really appreciate. In fact, there’s nothing better than spotting my family somewhere near the finish, smiling and screaming at me. This year though, I decided that it might help my running if I smiled more. Let’s just say I don’t ‘wear’ running well. I look knackered and my face and body must seem to scream ‘HELP!’ to the casual observer. So, for this run I tried to relax, smile and even have a bit of a laugh and I think it kind of worked. Mind you, it didn’t work on the final long hill when a fellow runner dressed head to toe in various dayglo colours took it upon himself to turn Mr. Motivator and shout encouraging stuff like ‘Come on, guys we’ve got this’ and ‘We’re all in this together!’ as well as singing lines from whatever song popped into his vacant head. Smile? It was all I could do not to tell him to shut the f… up!

Anyway, I’m off to find my next running adventure as the next one booked in isn’t until October! I’ll be back for Leeds next year though!

Middle Aged Moans and Creaking Bones.

It’s been a bit of a difficult start to the year in terms of health and fitness. It started with me catching some kind of bug just after New Year, which pretty much knocked me for six. It felt flu-like (I promise it wasn’t just the mythical ‘man flu’) and really didn’t help in preparing for the term ahead at work, as well as the new year in general. And it’s been largely downhill ever since…

A few Sundays ago, I was meant to be running the Pontefract 10k, easily one of my favourite races of the year. Training hadn’t been going well though and the most I’d ran in over a month had been 4.5 miles, which was a long way short of what I needed to complete for a 10k (6.2 miles). Still, despite the lack of miles in the legs I’d resolved to run and just give it everything I had in order to get over that finish line in a half decent time. And then the Saturday before happened.

On the Saturday before the race, I woke up feeling fine. I’d had a decent sleep and was up and showered early and ready to go. The usual Saturday plan is to head to a local country park in order to volunteer for ParkRun or just get some washing in and then head to the supermarket to do the weekly shop. With my son busy revising, it meant that we wouldn’t be volunteering, so once the washing was in I headed to the supermarket where, up to a point, everything was going swimmingly.

Suddenly though, as I headed to the checkout, I felt violently sick and my stomach was turning more than my washing machine. I dumped my trolley and ran to the toilets, just in case – can you imagine the eternal shame of throwing up in your local supermarket? Nothing happened though and so when I felt a little better I rescued my shopping and went and paid for it.

It happened again though, almost the minute that I walked in through my front door. To cut a long, repetitive story short, I ended up in bed, sleeping like a baby for the next couple of hours. On waking up, I realised pretty quickly that I wouldn’t be making the trip to Pontefract the next day.

This was the second race in two months that I’ve had to pull out of. The first one, in April, was just because I felt extremely tired. I didn’t even really want to race, having done the same one last year and hated every second of it! It was only bloody mindedness that made me enter again!

And so, that Pontefract Sunday was spent trying to pick myself up from feeling low and working out how to put things right. I had four weeks until my next race – the Leeds 10k, which is always fantastic. I decided just to take a slightly different approach and resolved to think less about times and distances and just make sure that I get out and run. No excuses, no pondering and deliberating and talking myself out of things…just get out with a minimum distance in mind and run. Hopefully fitness would come and as the race approached I would be able to start preparing properly and getting some longer distances in.

As I write on 2nd June, it’s been going well. I dragged myself out and did a post work 5k on the Monday evening after having missed out on Pontefract and I’ve been keeping going since then with 4 runs in total as well as several long walks and some yoga. My latest run was a Friday morning 10k which was nowhere near as tough as I’d expected and although I was slightly irritated with my time (just over 56 minutes) I’ve told myself that it doesn’t matter and that if I can run under 55 minutes for the Leeds 10k, then that will represent a bit of a triumph.

Hopefully, by the middle of June I’m approaching some sort of fitness. In an ideal world I won’t be struck down by another bout of mystery illness and so be able to just slowly build my strength back up. It’s been good just to give myself a kick up the backside and adopt a ‘no excuses’ attitude.

Roll on Sunday 15th June and the Leeds 10k! Fingers tightly crossed until the actual day though!

Book Review: ‘The Rise of The Ultra Runners’ by Adharanand Finn

For a while now, ultra running has both appalled and fascinated me. We’re talking ridiculous distances and conditions – running 100 mile races is fairly typical and often involving mountains and other such treacherous terrain. The idea of putting myself through such torture, despite my love of running, appalled me, but the idea that people chose to test themselves to the limits in such events absolutely fascinated me.

‘The Rise of The Ultra Runners’ had been on my ‘to read’ list for a while. It had sat there in one of my book boxes idle, occasionally popping its head up and briefly grabbing my attention before losing out to something shinier. And then one day, I decided that the time was right. It turned out that I really should have picked it up earlier!

The book plots the rise in popularity of ultra running; basically the pursuit of running ridiculous distances over many hours, sometimes days and often in ridiculous conditions. It would seem that there are now plenty of perfectly sane humans getting bored of the shorter distances, you know, like a marathon! For the uninitiated this means that ultra runners are taking on anything from 50k to 160k. In fact, the longest ultra is actually 3100 miles!

As with the last book of his that I read, ‘Running with the Kenyans’, Finn immerses himself in the world of endurance running. In order to write the book, he doesn’t just search out ultra runners, he becomes one and it’s an interesting read. Finn not only runs the races, at one point he even moves in with one of the world’s best ultra runners living in a cabin on a mountain, training with him and generally just trying to absorb everything he can about this world that he’s joined in with.

The adventures of ‘The Rise of the Ultra Runners’ take us all over the world in the pursuit of the ultimate test. Finn talks us through each agonising step in a world where things can change from one minute to the next. It seems that as an ultra runner you never quite know when disaster might strike.

However, these athletes, Finn included, are ridiculously dedicated to their craft. So whether, it’s an injury, the terrain, the weather or just the fact that the climb just doesn’t seem to want to end, these people just don’t seem to ever want to give up. Given that the distances can stretch into the hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles, this is an illuminating read, to say the least. And there was me congratulating myself on keeping going for the final mile of a particularly tough uphill 5k the other night!

‘The Rise of the Ultra Runners’ is a fantastic read whether you’re a runner or not. If you run, it’s about our world, but multiplied by 100 in most cases. If, like me, you often struggle to drag yourself around a 10k then you’ll be amazed at the physical and mental feats described here. The fact that not only can humans push themselves to their physical and mental limits over what feel like obscene distances, but also while they’re literally climbing mountains or battling with ridiculous extremes of temperature will never not fascinate me. But it’s not just that that’s so interesting. With this book, the devil is really in the detail in terms of exactly what we’re capable of.

The further I got through the book, the more fascinated I got. And the more fascinated I got, the more I thought about trying an ultra marathon myself. The reality is that I most likely won’t ever have the time, but it’s an idea that I still can’t shake and I’d love for there to be a time where I was able to train for one and make it happen.

And for me, that’s the genius of the book. It tackles something that will seem utterly ridiculous for the majority of us and yet, we’re still compelled by what we read. This reader, despite the onset of middle age, a pacemaker, asthma and a terrible habit of eating crisps and chocolate and drinking red wine read it and genuinely thought he’d be able to run a 50k race. And let’s not get started on my genuine fascination with a 100 miler in South Africa!

I give ‘The Rise of The Ultra Runners’

Five Things That Made Me Smile in February.

I try to write this piece every month, firstly as a reminder that whatever stress and nonsense I’m faced with, there’s always something to smile about. It might help serve as a timely reminder for anyone who reads too. I guess you can’t have enough positivity, can you?

Woman buys her husband a chimney. This was a story I read online about a woman who bought her husband a chimney for his birthday. Strange, I know. But this wasn’t just any old chimney stack. It was, in fact, a 42m high chimney stack that’s also a Grade 2 listed building in Derbyshire. The woman said that her husband had always dreamed of owning either a chimney or a water tower that he could then convert and so when she saw one at auction, she decided to bid. The building cost a surprisingly low £3000 ansd the hope it is that it will now be converetd into some kind of “quirky studio space”, which is good because I genuinely thought they were going to try and live in it. I mean, imagine getting an invite for a sleepover and being told you’d got the loft room! A night of terror at 42m up! Anyway, it made me smile because I just thought that the whole thing was very cool.

My cookery adventures. I’ve been branching out with my cooking and expanding my range for a little while now. One thing that I’ve never really cracked has been a decent curry though. Put simply, I’m rubbish at them. However, I wanted to keep trying and so when I found a couple of simple looking recipes I thought I’d give it all another go. The result was a pretty tasty chicken dhansak. There was a snag with it however, in that I didn’t use fresh ginger and so the granules I used made for a bit of a grainy curry. At least I know how I’ll improve it next time! My other culinary experiment was a chicken arrabiata with penne. Again, it was really tasty, if a little spicy, so maybe I’ll be a bit less free and easy with the chilli next time!

I had a haircut. Now this may seems like no big deal and certainly not a reason to be smiling, but it was. Firstly, it was the first haircut I’d had away from my regular hairdresser for probably around a decade…and I survived. But secondly, because my hairdresser has been in hospital I hadn’t had it cut for just short of ten weeks. Suffice to say, I wasn’t looking my best. So, the sheer relief of seeing myself looking a great deal more tidy was enough to crack that smile!

Almost the ultimate Football Manager dream. As a once avid player of the ‘Football Manager’ game this news story couldn’t fail to make me smile. ‘Football Manager’ is a game where you basically choose a team and manage them, controlling tactics, recruitment etc in the hope of bringing success. Aaron Hunt is a Twitch streamer who basically streams his exploits on the game, Football Manager. On the game, he’d played as manager of his local side Daisy Hill and his exploits had been noticed by the club themselves and basically they got in touch to ask him to become their chairman. Now Aaron is tasked with helping Daisy Hill overcome their financial problems and start to move up the league. Like I say, the stuff of dreams for football fans and for someone who was thoroughly addicted to the game years ago, more than enough to make me smile!

My first 10k of 2025! OK, so this one made me grimace more than smile, but it definitely brought that smiley feeling! I’m currently training for a 10k race in the middle of March and have been slowly but surely building up my distances with that in mind. It’s been quite tough as I’ve not really been myself and feel that I’m still suffering the after effects of a flu bug that I had in January. So getting up to my required distance has been a bit of a chore. However, with a week off for half term I took the opportunity to go out for a morning run, rather than the after work variety that I’ve been subjecting myself to since early January. It was a chilly, but sunny day so I went out in long sleeves, gloves and running tights under my shorts, but it was fantastic to be out in the daylight for once. It felt like Spring was edging ever closer. To cut a long story short, I wasn’t quick – clocking just over 55 minutes – but, despite the hills around where I live, I got that first 10k of the year under my belt. Despite not really feeling that good, I’d broken down a big barrier. With a bit more training, I’ll be quicker at least! Roll on March 16th and the upcoming Wakefield 10k!

So, there you have it; five more reasons to keep smiling, even if sometimes it involves putting yourself through some kind of Hell to get there!

The Pacemaker Diaries: It’s been two years.

You wouldn’t know it with the amount that I probably bang on about it, but I genuinely didn’t want having a pacemaker to define me. Still, I write about it, think about it constantly, find myself telling people things about it and frequently catch myself looking at my scar in the mirror or prodding away at the bit at the top of my chest where my wires are sticking up, right at the surface.

That said, a quick search of my posts tells me that the last time I wrote a ‘Pacemaker Diary’ was actually in November 2023, a whole year after it was fitted. So, even though it’s been mentioned in some pieces I’ve written since, maybe I’m not banging on about it quite as much as I imagine. Anyone I speak to regularly can feel free to correct me on that though!

I was prompted to write this post because of Facebook memories of all things. In the lead up to Christmas and New Year just gone it felt like every few days there’d be something popping up where I was thanking people for their support or updating friends on my progress. They reminded me of both how poorly I’d been and also how far I’d come and they made me do a lot of thinking about the little machine that sits in my chest.

It’s been over 2 years since I had the pacemaker fitted. I didn’t pay much attention to the anniversary this time around. Sometimes there’s just too much going on in life for you to pause and have a think about stuff. But those Facebook memories changed all that and made me want to write something down about what life’s like these days. Self indulgent? I don’t know really, but I guess if you think that way you have the option of clicking that little x in the corner of your screen and not reading on.

I think writing about it simply helps me get on with life, which might be a bit more understandable when I tell you what it’s all like.

The pacemaker makes me feel a lot more comfortable about life, that’s for sure. I hardly ever worry about my heart. But paradoxically, it is always there to remind of just how poorly I was and the long, long time that it took me to get better. On top of that it’s a constant reminder of how low it all made me feel and the worryingly negative effects it had on my mental health.

There are both positives and negatives when it comes to having this device though and those reminders on social media made me think about a few of them. The first is just a bit of a change, I suppose, although does feel slightly negative. These days, my heart literally thumps when there’s not really been a great deal of effort. I’ve noticed it when climbing stairs and also that when getting into bed and straightening out the duvet, once I settle down my heart will be thumping! As someone who had an unnaturally low heart rate prior to all this – one of the reasons for the pacemaker – that takes a bit of getting used to!

Having the pacemaker has really made me focus on my health and fitness to the point where I’m really quite obsessive and possibly even a little evangelical about running! Silly really, but it genuinely makes me feel strong being able to run, especially in actual races. I couldn’t recommend it enough, even though I’m aware it’s not everybody’s cup of tea!

Another negative is that I live with a heart monitor by the side of my bed. This makes me feel really, really old! The monitor doesn’t do much, but I’m aware it’s feeding data back to the hospital which still feels a little bit weird. As I mentioned earlier as well, I have another scar as well as a strange bit on my chest where my wires just stick upwards. It’s a neat little scar, but those wires spoil things and coupled with the big scar that I have on my chest from a childhood heart operation, it’s not a great look!

My condition means that I still get heart palpitations, albeit nowhere near as regularly as I was having them for large parts of 2022 before my operation. However now, when they come I can rest assured that the pacemaker will kick in after about 5 seconds and stop them. It’s still quite a frightening thing, especially when it feels like the pacemaker isn’t going to react. The thought of having them for untold hours and just trying to get on with my day while wondering if I was about to pass out is a memory that still lingers! Still, that pacemaker is reassuring though.

Another drawback is that my left arm and shoulder don’t seem to work very well anymore. My scarring is really close to my left shoulder and I assume that it’s affected things as I haven’t got full movement and my left arm isn’t as ‘strong’ as it used to be. I mean, it wasn’t strong anyway, but it’s just a bit pathetic nowadays!

The final gripe I have is with my aftercare. I’ve only had one follow up appointment with a cardiologist since it all happened. Even that wasn’t actually scheduled. It was an appointment about a 24 hour monitor I’d worn, but in between times I’d had to have my pacemaker fitted, so the appointment was made later because the cardiologist didn’t realise and had to spend a load of time reading my notes before actually seeing me! Since then – January 2023 – there have been a couple of scans done but no meeting with actual doctors, which feels wrong.

I have had a letter from my hospital saying that a planned appointment had been rescheduled for later in the year, but I hadn’t even been informed about the planned appointment, so it’s all a bit of a mystery really! Luckily, I feel fit and healthy but it is concerning not to be speaking to someone when we’re almost 2 years on from the last appointment.

All in all, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. Two years of major change that, just when you think you’ve almost forgotten about it and are living pretty normally, comes back to haunt you via bloody Facebook of all things! Clearly, while this pacemaker doesn’t really define me, it’s never going to leave me either!

So it’s 2025…

I thought I’d write a quick update, given that it’s the very start of a new year and given that it was the middle of December when I wrote my last piece. No proper resolutions as such, but some hopes for the next 359 days added to a few thoughts about last year.

The new year started in what I’d call typical fashion…for me. I was poorly for starters, still shaking off the last of a flu bug that I’d picked up in the middle of last month, which meant that I wasn’t really at my best. However, I needed to up my game a bit come New Year’s Eve. It was my daughter’s first ever New Year where she went out rather than stayed in with the family, so as well as worrying about her, I was worried that New Year’s Eve would be a bit of a let down for the rest of the family.

I’m informed by my wife that I’m usually ill on New Year’s Eve and as a result am no fun whatsoever. Apparently, it’s my daughter that brings the fun. It’s also not a time of year that I enjoy though. I never have. So this year, I had to find my fun side. The problem being that it’s usually kept very well hidden!

We don’t get roaring drunk on New Year and we tired of going out on this particular date many years ago. Time was we would go to Edinburgh most years and have an absolute ball. Then we had a spell of spending it with close friends and we had some brilliant nights. Having children changed all that though. So for the last however many years it’s been a case of a big party tea, games, some music, some drinks and then watching the new year come in on the telly.

This year was no different, but I had to really concentrate on being super enthusiastic! Suffice to say, New Year’s Eve was a bit of a challenge. I won’t bore you with the details, but I think I just about succeeded! I even joined in with some games on our long lost Wii as well as playing charades for the second time of the festive period!

I’ve vowed that I’m going to get a lot fitter this year. According to Strava I ran 306 miles last year. I don’t know whether that’s a lot – I don’t think it is really – but I mean to increase it significantly this year. Towards the end of the year I was feeling good when out on runs and my times were within seconds of those from 2021 and 2022 when I set a lot of my personal bests. Obviously, since those years I’ve been very ill and had a pacemaker fitted, so my fitness dropped a lot! But last year I was getting closer and closer to those previous levels until that aforementioned flu bug.

I’ve already entered 3 races and will be entering more as the year progresses. I’m also hoping to do more yoga and add some strength training to my plans. I’m sure I’ll be able to keep you updated on how it’s all going.

Alongside my fitness plans I’m also going to try really hard to improve my diet, primarily by eating more fruit and vegetables. I’ve already started eating blueberries, but I’m aware that it’s no good starting if you don’t keep it up! I eat far too much chocolate and have a real weakness for crisps, so I’ll be cutting down there. I’ve also got a real taste for pasta since I’ve started cooking more and I’m aware that too much of those lovely sauces aren’t that good for me. So, I’ll need to start looking for some more healthy recipes, I think.

So, I’m going for the health and fitness cliches in 2025 then! I’ll keep you updated about them both! I’m also determined to get out and meet more people this year too. Or maybe just get out more with friends as a start off as I’m actually very shy. And the other thing that I’ll devote more time to will be looking into my pension and retirement plans. It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since I left university, but here we are; early fifties and thinking about retirement!

I went for my first run of the year on 3rd January. It had been exactly a month since my last one due to illness and I still wasn’t feeling 100%. I was adamant that I wasn’t too bothered by time or distance and yet I still managed to set off far too quickly! That in turn meant that my next mile was pretty poor and my legs were like jelly on some of the hills. However, I was delighted to drag myself round just over 5k in the end, even though I was pretty slow!

That wasn’t the end of things though! I’ve always seemed to have a problem with dogs and sometimes dog walkers when out running. I think dogs have knocked me over on at least 5 occasions and I’ve also had ‘words’ with a few owners who just seem oblivious to their dogs. It had been a while though and I thought my dog trouble might be a thing of the past. That was until when running through a group of dog walkers and their dogs I was almost blindsided by a lurcher! I heard a shout, looked over just in time and managed to pirouette myself out of the way of this sprinting hound. It caught me on the knee as it went past, but taking evasive action saved me. If it had hit me full on it would definitely have knocked me off my feet! Instead I survived to fight and run another day!

My final new year news is that we got a snow day today. I was sure that my school would be open after the snow fell on Saturday might and little more was added on Sunday. I got up for work this morning, was fully dressed apart from my tie and shoes and halfway through my breakfast when I was alerted to the fact that we were closed. Now I know that us teachers get more holidays than most – not enough mind you – and I know that I’ve just had two weeks off too, but I still cannot describe the sheer joy of getting a snow day! And although some of it has been spent out in the cold, walking my daughter to work and shovelling snow away, it’s still been absolutely fantastic!

Until the next time – Happy New Year!