Fitness

On July 24th I completed the biggest challenge I’d ever set myself — running 72 miles around the border of Newport. The run was by far the furthest I’d ever gone which was a challenge in itself, but what about the stoma and parastomal hernia?

I’ve been irrigating for 18 months and have settled on a routine of performing it every other day apart from Saturday’s when I switch to 24 hours to tie in with a long run. On the whole, things are going well and the schedule works for me. 

Before I had a stoma I had completed half a dozen ultramarathons and it had my favourite race distance but when I had surgery in January 2019 I wasn’t sure how having a stoma would affect running those distances.

In early December a challenge appeared on my radar called The Longest Night and I instantly signed up. I had heard of the other challenge that was held back in June called The Longest Day where runners would head out on the hour, every hour for 24 hours during the longest day of the year. The format was going to be the same but most of the runs would be taking part in darkness.

On paper, running 24 miles in 24 hours doesn’t sound that difficult and is easily achievable but breaking down that distance over 24 hours may be a different thing altogether.

Thanks to a prompt from Colostomy UK, I discovered that today is National Fitness Day – “the most active day of the year” – and with a run already planned on my training schedule, I was all geared up to take part.

It’s been six weeks since I took the decision to start running again and it’s been great to be back out running on a regular basis. I’m taking things relatively easy with 5k/10k runs at varying paces and the odd trail run. So how have things been going?

After 16 months of dealing with a chronic Ken Butt wound, both physically and mentally, it was time for me to try running again regardless of whether the wound has healed or not. The wound was constantly on my mind and affecting me mentally so I needed to try and find a balance of managing it whilst getting back into running.

66 days for Ostomates to walk, run, and dance their way to 66,000km. That is the new challenge launched by Colostomy UK to help promote fitness for those that have undergone stoma surgery.