Aftermath.

Having had to set up some form of webpage to post my 2016 Spine account I settled on trying to create a blog – and this is the result.

I suspect my brain may still be a little fried from the Spine since I found it harder to do than I probably ought to have done. I’m still not sure it’s working ok since some times the blog shows photos and sometimes it doesn’t. The links I have posted sometimes work and sometimes don’t. Some people can use the links I’ve posted to FB and some can’t. I have no idea why.

Anyway, having set it up it remains to be seen whether I make any further use of it. I may record a few things on it from time to time, mainly for my own personal record but if any of it is of use to others, then that will be a bonus.

It’s now a little over 2weeks since I finished the Spine and I’m still recovering from the aftermath.

Physically I’m not too bad. I didn’t really get any blisters (just a couple on my little toes, which I always get, because they tend to tuck in under my foot) and the feeling has come back in my R big toe. I can now get normal shoes on since my feet have come back down to their usual size, I have some pain to the outside of my feet where they swelled up into my boots and I still have a weirdly numb L big toe which extends into the ball of my foot. I guess this is nerve damage from constantly moving, I just hope it’s not permanent.

I’ve even done a little running. I’ve managed a couple of light 4 mile or so runs but I had no energy and I struggled to keep up with Louise. It hurt my L knee too, which the physio treating me for my back issue leading up to the race said is my ITB. Apparently it was very tight and she had trouble releasing it, but it seems much better now.

I’ve been back out on the hill as well. I did about 10miles or so 4 Inns training with the Explorer Scouts at the weekend on the Goyt-Cat and Fiddle-Buxton section. I thought I might be bored with it all and it might be just too much effort but once back out there it all came back to me, including the little things you forget and miss recording in a blog or race account, like the sound of crows fighting overhead, the bite of the wind, how constant and how massive the sky is, how many variations of grey and green there are, how constantly your nose drips … and I realised what I had been missing in the last two weeks.

Allthough it is hard mentally, in a way Spine life is easier than ‘real’ life. There is only you, and you only have to think about keeping you going. In a way it’s a temporary release from normal living and as such it’s not easy to get back to normality.

Mentally, I was a wraith for the 1^st week. I kept falling asleep, but could only sleep for a couple of hours at a time at night and I woke up either freezing cold or sweating. The simplest task seemed like too much bother and concentrating on work was hard too. Last week was better but Louise says I am still below par mentally and not really there. I probably am still somewhere else most of the time, locked into my head. You do need the ability to be comfortable in your own company on this sort of race but after so much time, reverting back to sociality isn’t easy and that seems to affecting me much more and for much longer than the physical effect.

Since being back I’ve eaten for England too. I only lost 2lb on the race itself but in the week afterward I lost another 5lb despite the amount of food I ate. I guess most of that weight will now be back on and at some point I will have to get back to normal eating or end up a whale again … just not quite yet please.