Katie's Challenges and Story

We are often alluding to what I (Katie) have been through and how far I've come but I thought I'd write it down for those of you that haven't known me very long/very well.

Gary had his second week of radiation for his foot in July 2012. In September that year we discovered, to our great delight, that we were expecting a baby. By early October I was in hospital receiving fluids and feeling awful. I was diagnosed as having Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) or severe morning sickness. I was unable to keep any food or even drink down at all, not even those small sips of water that everyone seems to recommend and definitely not ginger!! I ended up in hospital because I was very dehydrated and need fluids. A few weeks later I ended up in hospital again requiring more fluids. I was given a scan and reassured that my baby was ok and the sickness would die down by 12 weeks.

Well let's just say it didn't and I spent the full term in my flat keeping as still as possible. The focus of the day was to try and drink some fluid and tick another day off the list. Gary and my mum kept me going and gave me some company but otherwise it was a really long and horrid pregnancy. By 37 weeks I had had enough, and was concerned about it was effecting my relationship with my unborn baby, so I begged them to induce me so it would all be over.

Eventually they did on the Tuesday before she was due, however, Amelia wasn't ready to come out. Finally, on her last chance, Amelia was born in the early hours of Saturday. During labour I suffered a bleed and lost around 1 litre of blood. Amelia also had an infection so was taken straight up to the children's unit. Later she also had jaundice and needed treatment for that. We ended up staying in hospital till the Wednesday and finally we were home.

I wish that was the end of the story but unfortunately I then went on to suffer from post natal depression (PND) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Due to all of the above I also gained a lot of weight and reached 16 stone.

Eventually in December 2014 we decided to go Low Carb and loss some weight. We were very successful and the following March/April we also took up running by using the couch to 5Km programme. I was unable to do the prescribed 3 runs a week so I cut it down to just 2 runs a week. In June I did my first parkrun at Eastbourne and was delighted with a time of  32.59. I say delighted because I had attempted Brighton Park run the previous year and was around 40 minutes, my slowest time being 40.58.

Over 2015 I lost 6 stone and dropped my parkrun time down to 27.23 at Christmas.

So my challenges for 2017 are going to be as follows:

1) Run over 1000 miles over the course of the year - this is the approximate mileage that Gary had to travel for his radiotherapy treatment.
2) Compete in at least 60 races through the course of the year, including parkruns - Total Gy of radiation that Gary received.
3) Achieve a sub 25min parkrun - couldn't think of a Ledderhose link but seemed a good target!

These challenges are all going to be very difficult for me but I want to challenge myself for Gary for this year. We feel we've both had significant journeys, we hope you agree, and feel this is worth the effort.

Please support us in any way you can and we'd love to have so company at any of the races (spectators or runners) or our training runs.