Caroline Crehan writes
Dear all – first of all, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who’s donated to my fundraising page over the last few weeks –I’m already more than half-way to my £1000 target! Not there yet though, and still keen to push the target up to £2000, so keep those donations coming for Meningitis Now: https://tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/caroline-crehan-81410 .
I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since Snowdonia already! What can I say the week following that epic race was one of the most painful weeks of my life…
Snowdonia the aftermath:
My legs were destroyed. For 2 days I could not walk normally. By day 3, walking was getting better, but I absolutely could not even do a recovery run. Literally legs would simply would not do it. My body winced in pain if I tried to run even a few steps. For a week afterwards, I could not walk up and down stairs or sit on the loo! 2 black toenails, one on each foot. I tried to use my foam roller, but it was too painful - absolute agony. On the 4th night post-race, I was in so much pain I had to get up in the middle of the night and get a bag of frozen peas out of the freezer. I lay with my calves resting on the peas and plastic bags full of ice cubes on top of each thigh. This succeeded in completely numbing my leg muscles and finally taking the pain away!! – Honestly, this was such a relief and allowed me to get some much-needed sleep. Icing of sore muscles seems to work well for me, and I will definitely do this again next time if necessary. The peas went back in the freezer the next morning … and were eaten the next week – slightly mushy but still fine!!
Chiswick Banya
Luckily, I was booked in to go to a spa the weekend after Snowdonia, for a mate’s birthday. This friend of mine is an amazing Environmental Lawyer and had previously spent one of her law rotations in Moscow. For her birthday she wanted to re-experience a Russian spa. So, a bunch of us headed to ‘Banya no, 1’ on Chiswick High Road, where you can go for various treatments. A ‘Perenie’ treatment (which we all signed up for), is the Russian classic. This basically involves lying in a dark sauna while two Russian guys hit you with bunches of hot oak leaves – this will supposedly improve your circulation and prolong your life. You also get some cold wet oak leaves placed on your face, which all feels rather earthy, and to be honest I couldn’t help feeling slightly as if I was being buried alive!! The steam and the heat were almost too much at one point, and I heard myself yelping with the heat. As a result, a jug of cold water was poured over me, which only resulted in more yelping!! Haha I wasn’t cut out for this Perenie business – meanwhile, my friend Sarah was just lying there quietly next to me, seeming to love the whole thing, not a peep out of her. When it was all over, we were led out of the sauna, only to have a bucket of cold water hanging from the ceiling pulled over our heads! After that we had to jump into a 5 -degrees plunge pool - full emersion of whole body and head under the surface. ‘This will bring you very long life’ the Russian guy said – ‘you do this often - you live long life’. It did feel amazing afterwards to be honest. My whole body was tingling all over as we sat in the lobby, eating pickled herrings, and drinking Russian tea. What an experience and what a great treatment for my battered leg muscles!!! Despite all my yelping I would highly recommend this kind of spa for post marathon legs, as long as you’re ok with extremes of temperature that is!
During the next few weeks, (and after almost a whole week off), I slowly shuffled, jogged and ran back into training again.
Circle line 15 miler
One of the highlights of my training since Snowdonia, has been Rachel Job’s Circle line 15 miler. This was an awesome way to return to long runs – I met up with Kat and Simon at 8am on a Sunday morning – it was going to be hot hot hot, so we started early doors. They wanted to run at ~9.30 mins per mile which sounded on the fast side, but I thought I can do this no problem. We started at South Ken, a station I know well, having been to the Royal College of Music on Saturdays during secondary school. I can remember walking through the long echoey subway under the museums from the station with our instruments every Saturday morning.
Kat, Simon, and I set off along the circle line route chatting away as we ran. We passed so many landmarks that seemed to have lots of personal stories attached to them. First, we ran past St Mary’s hospital (below left), a wonderful paediatric department I’ve worked in as a SHO (Senior House officer) and later as a Registrar (More experienced Senior level doc with membership exams passed). I learnt so much from the inspiring team of paediatric doctors there, seeing some conditions for the very first time there. Lots of unforgettable cases and key learning points that shaped my clinical practice going forward. What a place.
Next, we passed Marylebone Town Hall (above right) where Simon got married! Woweee what a life milestone. Apparently, Paul McCartney and Liam Gallagher both also got married here, what musical royalty to be rubbing shoulders with Simon!
Next - we passed the magnificent Kings Cross Saint Pancras station (below left). In the hotel restaurant there, Kat got engaged to her now husband James, and they celebrate their anniversary there every year. So very important for Kat – as for me, the Spice-girls filmed their video for Wannabe in the red brick archways and this is my go-to Kareoke song!!
And Parliament square (above right) where so many demonstrations and protests have taken place over the years – for me I remember marching in the junior doctors protests a few years back …when the government were trying to impose unfair, unsafe contracts on us. We finished the March here chanting ‘Save our NHS’. Seems like the Covid19 Pandemic has sort of saved it in many respects – little did we know, back in 2016 how much it would our wonderful NHS would be needed just 4 years later.
There were many more landmarks with many more things to say along the circle line route – it really was an awesome trip down memory lane. A huge thanks to Rachael for organising such a wonderful run and I will definitely be doing the next one from Tower hill this weekend! Can’t wait. That’s all for now folks – Hope you’ve enjoyed a few highlights and thanks again for any donations. Wish me luck for the mileage ramp up this next week – I’ll be hitting 45 miles a week which is a lot for me! bring it on.