Blimey this is harder than I thought......

[Jonad724]

If you're a regular reader of my posts you'll know I'm training for a half ironman triathlon in aid of the Meningitis Trust on August the 19th to be precise.

All has been going well but then a strained tendon in my left foot has reared its ugly self and running has been off the menu for four weeks now. Very frustraing to reduce my runs from 8-9 miles to just 3 but my coach says that's what I need to do so I am.

I've upped my swimming and cycling to compensate, that's the beauty of triathlon, but just getting round on August 19th is looking like it'll be a struggle. So what do you do when doubts set in? Do you give up, walk away and say well that's that then I tried but I can't do it, sorry Meningitis Trust?

Err not if you're a meningitis survivor you don't. A sore foot is nothing in comparison with surviving an attack of viral meningitis which was so serious the hospital told my parents that they didn't expect me to last the night; they didn't tell my wife as they didn't want to worry her! Hooked up to two drips barely conscious and making pacts with whatever almighty being there is out there to just give me a bit more time kind of makes you think well hang on a minute I survived that, and it wasn't in my control, so completing a half ironman is possible. It's possible even I have to crawl round (well apart from the swim of course) and although there's an 8 1/2 hours cut off after which officially there are no further finishers I will do it.

So what do you do when the doubts creep in, when you think life has dealt you a crap hand (and believe me with the after effects I have been left with it is easy to think that way) and every fibre of your being, let alone the sore foot, when you're 8 miles into a half marathon having already completed a 1.1 mile swim and 56 miles on a bike, is telling you to stop? You struggle on that's what you do.

It's 10 years this year since that attack and as my eldest daughter so aptly said 'So you want to celebrate almost dying by nearly kiiling yourself' ye'p that's pretty much the case, I know what's it like to wake up in the morning and think I'm fed up with this and I give up, but each day I feel like that I think ah come on it isn't that bad, i'm still here and whatever almighty being I was praying to for more time has answered those prayers and then some.

My run today was in the pouring rain and you know what it didn't matter; I am still here and I can still run, so many others who have suffered at the hands of this dreadful illness don't have that luxury. It is for those that the Meningitis Trust supports that I wlll struggle on and will complete that half ironman triathlon but blimey it is harder than I thought.....