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New years Reselution

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
H

HOBIE

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Have you thought of 1. How about raising some pennies for the fight against the big "D" Plenty to go for 😎
 
Starting my new life of northern England running with 15 miles trail race on NYD. Aim to try more Parkrun venues - added my 3rd last weekend. Will do first fell race sometime. Will continue to marshal at mountain & trail races, mountain marathons etc.
 
I'm volunteering for a local charity for the blind and also hoping to do some marketing for them on a voluntary basis. My personal goal is to complete the first year of my humanities degree...nearly four years after starting it:D
 
I was thinking of posting something about resolutions a couple of days ago, but HOBIE beat me to it; here they are, albeit a bit rambling and disjointed.

I have some New Year's resolutions, but I'm afraid they tend to be same each year; lose weight, get fitter, do more backpacking, catch up with the backlog of unmade model plane kits, and reduce my HbA1c. Makes me wonder if I ever will.

When I retired just over 2 years ago I had a vision of backpacking, model planes, wood carving, and so on and so on. But as anyone who has retired will tell you, things don't seem to work out like that.
I started to feel very weak, tired and aching, which particularly affected my legs. It took quite a while to realise that it was a side effect of statins. So that and the wet summer of 2012 meant not much hiking. I seemed to get every bug going, but not enough to take to my bed in a serious way, just enough to spoil things; a constant low level niggling sniffle and tummy bug (that's the polite word for it). It came and went during 2013 too; never properly ill, but never really well.

Like many diabetics I am prone to depression, and I seemed to have spent a lot of time just sitting about, staring at the walls, brooding and feeling sorry for myself. Fortunately I finally managed to shake off this bug towards the end of November, and I'm feeling a lot better now; and my latest diabetic review in mid December was surprisingly good, so I'm feeling quite confident about next year. I've had enough of daytime television!

For many years I was just under 36" waist, and when my trousers became too tight I bought 2 or 3 pairs of 38" waist jeans from charity shops, thinking; they're cheap, they'll do me till I lose a bit of weight. Over Christmas I noticed that they are now very tight. I am not, repeat NOT going to buy 40" waist trousers!. I've just weighed myself this morning, I'm 93.6 kg
My resolution, therefore is to get down to 85 kg, and comfortably into 36" waist trousers by Midsummer's Day 2014. That should, I hope be attainable

I am a member of the Backpacker's Club. I was chatting to one friend there, who mentioned that he'd done 141 night's camping this year. Another said he hadn't counted, but reckoned it was about 90 to 100, another did 58. I did 9. So there's some inspiration for me. I have a few ideas for routes, let's see if I can do them.

A quick count shows 6 or 7 part - started kits, plus a load I haven't even touched. 'Nuff said.
When I retired I took up knife making. You can buy the blades then carve your own handles and sew your own sheaths. I've made 2 or 3, but basically that's in the same sort of limbo as the other stuff.

But somehow, I now feel brighter and more optimistic, as though I want to do things and not that I have to or should do.

New Year resolutions should be fairly short and concise, but as I said, this has been a bit of a jumble. Hope you can make some sense of it, and that it hasn't bored you too much.

You might want to look at these websites

www,backpackersclub.co.uk
www.britishblades.com especially the Custom and Scandinavian forums
 
Good luck with your jeans Zuludog. Have you seen the Duk site with the different walks on. Bridges over the Thames etc,3 Peaks. I can tell you feel good doing somethig for charrity. Keep at it 😉
 
Another idea, Zuludog, and a way to get 2 nights camping - volunteer marshals at SLMM (Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon, in English Lake District, early July each year) include Backpackers Club members. Very sociable - runners are always pleased to see marshals at registration, start, remote checkpoints, overnight camp & finish (whether they completed or retired early).
 
I have assisted or marshalled at organised events including the National Three Peaks and SLMM, and local one day events. If it is open to the general public it seems to attract entrants who have no real understanding of what they're doing - we spent a couple of hours searching for two missing women once, and were about to call the rescue teams, when they turned up without a care in the world. Seems they'd got tired , so decided to go shopping in Ambleside instead. But they didn't tell anyone!
And if the competitors are more serious runners I have found many of them to be impatient, arrogant and pushy, with no appreciation of the fact that the stewards/marshalls are simply fellow walkers who have given up their free time.
The final straw was on a day event in The Lake District when I saw competitors pushing a family off the path so they could get to a stile first.
So I don't bother any more.
 
I've volunteered to be part of the emergency team at the Council, to dish out tea and sympathy if people need to be evacuated from their homes for any reason. I hope I'm not needed, but 'stuff' happens and when it does I always feel I should be doing something to help.
 
sorry for the double posting. We had a power cut partway through. it's back on now, but seems to have upset things
 
zuludog said:
I have assisted or marshalled at organised events including the National Three Peaks and SLMM, and local one day events. If it is open to the general public it seems to attract entrants who have no real understanding of what they're doing - we spent a couple of hours searching for two missing women once, and were about to call the rescue teams, when they turned up without a care in the world. Seems they'd got tired , so decided to go shopping in Ambleside instead. But they didn't tell anyone!
And if the competitors are more serious runners I have found many of them to be impatient, arrogant and pushy, with no appreciation of the fact that the stewards/marshalls are simply fellow walkers who have given up their free time.
The final straw was on a day event in The Lake District when I saw competitors pushing a family off the path so they could get to a stile first.
So I don't bother any more.
Click to expand...

That's a real shame, Zuludog. My experiences of SLMM have been very different.
First time at SLMM, I competed, but had to retire on day 1 due to balance problems from sinus / ear infection that hadn't cleared enough to be safe on steep slopes with rocky outcrops (obviously not on tracks). When we reached overnight camp, we expected to camp and hitch out or take easiest route back to start next day, but discovered that my race partner's life partner had badly cut the palm of his hand on a sharp rock, and needed suturing. So he and his race partner were offered a lift to start to collect their car and drive themselves to A&E. There was room for my race partner and I, so we were able to set off that night - they had short journey over the Pennines, but I had much further to head to East Anglia, so I found at B&B in Keswick.
Second time I marshalled and was responsible for collecting timing chips from any who retired to start instead of getting to overnight camp, and keeping overnight team informed about retirees. However, part way through day 1, I was phoned by a pair who needed to retire because of a badly damaged knee, so person could barely walk. Fortunately, this happened high up hills, so they had a signal to call me. I took details and informed race director, who was a member of local mountain rescue and said they would be happy to escort them out. Fortunately, I had grid reference and name of valley, so knew what information to give to police control so they could inform the right MRT. In the end, MRT carried casualty, as it was quicker than walking alongside - and they treated it as an exercise. That year, my life partner was competing with a woman friend of ours - and they won their class, but only because of his navigation and because she grabbed his rucksack and strapped it to her front to run in, which attracted some interesting comments at finish. They're the sort of elites who do thank marshals as they pass or at least smile if too out of breath - in fact, all the OMM elites I know do that. I have seen elites call out as they approach walkers from behind, not telling people to get out of way, but to excuse as they pass, nearly always going off track to bypass walkers on path. My third SLMM I ran with my sister's husband, and we finished in top third of our class (not just top third of mixed team).
At Tour de Helvellyn on shortest day 2013, I was based at a support check point, so most people were pleased to see us - if they were grumpy, that usually meant some injury and / or mild hypothermia. We had several retirees, all of whom were very thankful for help, once they were in warm dry car, then village hall. Several runners reached village hall, then crashed with mild hypothermia, unable to remove their own wet clothes or eat or drink without help, due to numb fingers and shaking hands. That sort of race only accompanies those with SMJ (sound mountain judgement) - although a few obviously forgot the need to change out of wet clothes, eat and drink as soon as you get into warm. One idiot was known not to have returned to start to download, so eventually his emergency contact number was phoned - he'd gone home and intended to post back his timing chip, but had omitted to tell or phone anyone on race.
I steer clear of Three Peaks events for just the reasons you outline - some participants are gym bunnies / muppets who fail to realise the trouble their lack of mountain / trail / navigation experience / judgement can cause to race volunteers and sometimes outside agencies too.
 
zuludog said:
sorry for the double posting. We had a power cut partway through. it's back on now, but seems to have upset things
Click to expand...

Removed one of them for you - hope that's OK?
 
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