I’m running the London Marathon 2025 to fight for lung health!
Since 2019 I've been part of Team Breathe, raising money for the British Lung Foundation, now Asthma and Lung UK. It started out as a personal journey having been diagnosed with an autoimmune lung disease back in 2011 (Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organising Pneumonia, now re-named Cryptogenic Organising Pneumonia). This wasn't ideal news for a professional singer, but with the expertise of medical professionals and the support of the lung foundation, my condition was, and is, manageable as long as I don't overdo it and run up too many hills!
Then came the pandemic. A respiratory pandemic. A frightening time for all of us during which the daily news and indeed our daily vocabulary centred around the breath, the lungs, the airways... Many of us lost loved ones during this time. All of us have, in different ways, been changed by this virus. And some of us have more challenges lung-wise and health-wise as a result of being exposed to Covid-19.
Asthma + Lung UK works tirelessly to fight for everyone's right to breathe from research initiatives to online and face to face support groups. Every pound I'm able to raise will take us a step closer to a world where everyone has healthy lungs.
I'd be very grateful for any donations you could make xxx
My Updates
02 Breathtaking: Quinquagenarian with lung condition trains for the London Marathon in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside
Monday 6th Jan
WEEK TWO of EIGHTEEN – 3 miles/ 3 miles/ 3 miles/ 7 miles
New Year’s Eve 2024 – 3 miles; Lifestyle Fitness, Carlisle
7am. Easy run but came home exhausted. Watched a Christmas movie (final one allowed until Dec 2025) took down decorations, went for dinner with friends at Oddfellows in Caldbeck, and was in bed before midnight. Am I tired because of Christmas, or tired because of running?
New Year’s Day 2025 - 3 miles Longthwaite, Cumbria
Such torrential rain and wind yesterday that I didn’t risk Penrith Parkrun so ran locally and stuck to the paths around Longthwaite, dodging puddles. Easy run. Earnt a badge on my Garmin for making a good start to the new year. Watched Scoop with Blokey Bloke, did some singing practice (don’t usually sing on the same day I run but it's kind of essential as cruise contract is fast approaching). Bed. Happy. No fatigue. Lungs fine.
Friday 3rd Jan 2025 – 7 miles Lifestyle Fitness, Carlisle
Should really wait until Sunday to do my 7 miles but I’ll be at sea and no idea the state of the waves nor if the ship’s gym will be open (weather dependent), so head to the gym in Carlisle today. Had planned to do it running up to Caldbeck and take some breathtaking photos of Skiddaw in the snow, but the ice on Longthwaite Road prevented me from stepping onto the pavement. Took 10 minutes to de-ice the car, drove the 20 mins to the gym, ran the 7 miles (so boring on the treadmill but Hark the Herald on loop kept me company), headed back home, packed for the cruise contract, dinner with Blokey Bloke and bed.
Saturday 4th Jan 2025 – 3 miles Fitness Centre, Bolette Ship, Liverpool
Early start, Blokey Bloke drove me to Liverpool Cruise Terminal to board ship, had an Entertainers’ Meeting, then headed up to the Fitness Centre and did my 3 miles as we were sailing out of port. Winds are going to pick up tomorrow so there’s no chance I’ll be on the treadmill. Garmin is going a bit nuts and telling me I’ve done over 8 miles in 30 minutes at a speed even Mo Farah would be proud of. Is this because the Garmin doesn’t like the ship moving or because the fitness centre is on Deck 9?? Don't know. Oh well, had to trust the treadmill’s readings and did a slow 3 miles. Done for the week. Heading down to Rio!
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01 Breathtaking: Quinquagenarian with lung condition trains for the London Marathon in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside
Sunday 29th Dec
WEEK ONE of EIGHTEEN – 3 miles/ 3.1 miles/ 4 miles/ 6 miles
Christmas Eve 2024 – 3 miles
Cold, dark, windy outside. 6:03am. I’m awake. Day one of training programme for the London Marathon! Yippee! Motivated – yes! Thinking positively – yes! But way too cold, dark and windy outside, so I’m heading to the gym with my Hal Higdon Novice 1 Training Plan (the most basic you can get) which will train me up for the distance. Just to get over the finish line. Not for any snazzy time or PB. Just to do a finish. In one piece. However breathless.
I’ve done the distance once before but on the flat in Suffolk. This time, however, I’m training in Cumbria which has slightly more hills, and my lung condition (Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organising Pneumonia – BOOP for short) means I’m not great at hills.
Oh well, here goes…
Today is just a few miles, 3 to be precise, and shouldn’t cause me too much bother. As I get into the car (it’s still dark at 8am up here) a Torchy runs past, her perfectly formed runners’ legs clad in just a skimpy pair of shorts (I’m dressed in full winter gear and woolly hat and that’s for the gym), and she is wearing the obligatory headtorch to guide her. She whizzes past me and I’m humbled by her fitness level. I realise I’m just not in that league of runner. But this is a start. 3 miles on the treadmill at Lifestyle Fitness. Easy.
Christmas Day 2024 – 3 (.1) miles
Parkrun. Dressed in elf leggings and full of runner’s smugness (Parkrun on Christmas Day!), I drive to Penrith with my sister for what I’m hoping will be another ‘easy’ few miles.
How wrong you can be. The first mile is taken leisurely, accompanied by my fellow runners who are dressed as reindeer, elves, Santas and even Christmas trees, and the atmosphere is all jovial and Christmassy and light and happy.
Turning the corner after 1.3 miles, I can feel a little niggle in my left knee. By 1.4 miles it’s evolved into a stabbing pain and by the time I reach the next marshal I realise I need to acknowledge this pain and stop. I stretch it out, tell the marshal I’m fine, and try to run on.
But can’t. I can’t run on. Every step causes pain. So I do the thing I’ve never yet done at Parkrun – I walk. The words of a bloke I met outside the gym on a cruise ship come to mind, ‘anyone can run a marathon – you just need to slow down in training and keep listening to your body’. I do just that. I start to jog a little and slow it right down. That feels OK. I speed up and the pain comes back. I walk some more. Speed up to a jog. That feels OK this time. I speed up some more and find my stride again. By the final tenth of a mile in the finishing straight and I’m sprinting to the finish. No niggles. Just fine.
But the knee niggle has scared the hell out of me.
27th December 2024 (4 miles)
Wake up early again today and feel fresh after a day off running. Decide to do the 4 miles back at Lifestyle Fitness, Carlisle just to be on the safe side. There have been no knee niggles since Christmas Day, but still, I don’t want to risk the ‘pounding on tarmac’ this early on in the training. The gym is quite busy at 8.30am and mainly has blokes and ladies in their 50s and 60s trying to work off the excess of rich food. I get to the machine, listen to Atomic Habits on Audible, feel fine, drive back to Wigton, have coffee with neighbours, walk up Latrigg with the family and all is well.
29th December 2024 (6 miles)
Decision Fatigue, it turns out, really is a thing! Wake up at 7am to gusts of wind outside. Make tea, get back into bed, wait until it gets light. Do I go out for the 6 miles today and grin and bear the gale, or do I wimp out and head back to the gym? Back and forth I go in my mind, weighing up the pros and cons of both, eventually coming to the conclusion that it’s a gym day...
…except that on the drive to Carlisle, I notice that the wind has died down a bit and I really do want to have a run outside and I really don’t want to go to the gym and the knee isn’t giving me any trouble at all and I really do want to test it on the roads and I have a day off running tomorrow, so why on earth am I being such a wimp and heading to the treadmill?
I turn around, drive home, change into outdoor gear, grab my hydration vest, fill it with water, and set off at a leisurely pace for a lovely 6 miles. Bit windy, bit gassy but feel amazing once home. Loving this x
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Go Fiona!