The Dangers of Retirement

by Helen Bridle

Having spent 12 years running for GB I decided that after the world champs in Switzerland in 2012 I was going to retire from international competitions.

After a lazy autumn the new year came around and I was faced with a whole year without plans, with no world champs, selection races, JK, british championships or training camps to define my year. Friends and family were confused as when they asked about weekends to meet up I said whenever rather than offering them second weekend in June or first one in October. I was also confused about to do with my retirement.

In a panic about this and my general laziness I decided a new goal was needed. The problem was what?

I'd run reasonable 5, 10k and half marathon times and trying to better those seemed like a bit much effort. My thoughts then moved onto trying a marathon but I remembered Helen Palmer and Becky Carlyle telling me about how dull the training had been and I was put off by how much training on the road I'd need to do. It was at this point I thought how about an off-road marathon and the rather stupid idea of the Marathon des Sables (MdS) popped into my head.

The MdS is the equivalent of 6 marathons in 6 days in the Sahara desert! You carry everything you need for 6 days and the organisers provide the water and a tent to sleep in at night.

I've been doing lots of long runs as training and getting used to running with my rucksack. I've had some excellent adventures, the best of which was completing Hadrians wall in 3 days - I can recommend it but go west to east as day 2 with 8.5 hours into the wind being blown backwards was hard work! At present there is a week or so to go and I've been doing loads of bikram yoga as heat acclimatisation. I've also become rather obsessed with food in terms of calorie to weight ratios - and discovered that freeze dried spaghetti bolognaise is tastier than I imagined!

However, once it is over I'm looking forward to some proper retirement - cake eating, dancing, ...

I'm raising money for Yorkshire Cancer Research, which means especially a lot to me at the moment as my boyfriend's mum is suffering from cancer, and any sponsorship you can spare would be very gratefully received:
www.justgiving.com/Helen-Bridle

You can follow my progress on:
www.marathondessables.com.
Each day, the organisers list the day’s results with times and positions. My race number is 522.

Also you can message me during the race using these instructions:
Messages can be sent to you on this site from 6 April until 11 April, but delivery cannot always be guaranteed.  In order to send a message, your friends/family will need to go to the www.marathondessables.com website and click on 'Ecrire anx Concurrents' (Write to Competitors).  There is a form for emails - name, surname and running (DOS) number will be required - without these, it will be impossible to locate you or deliver your emails!  We also advise you to ask your senders to include your name and running number (and tent number if known) in the message itself. Messages are printed and distributed each evening for all competitors and there is no charge for receiving messages.

I can also send one email a day which I'll send to Paul to forward onto people/post on Facebook. If you're not going to be on Facebook and would like to get an email then let Paul know on
paulclatworthy@gmail.com

 

    

Helen at the World Championships