Author Archives: Bo

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About Bo

Dog lover. Runner. Although very slowly. Keeping up with the stresses of running and life...

The simple things in life are sometimes the best!

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I was recently sitting at the airport when I overheard a bunch of Americans having the most arb of conversations. At first, I battled to understand what they were going on about, but it was a very passionate, detailed discussion about a “Crunchbar”. I casually turned around to discover that they were talking about Crunchies – you know, the chocolate in the gold wrapper.

The one guy had bought a whole bag of these mini Crunchbars from the duty-free shop and was passing it around for everyone in his group to taste.

He described it as absolutely delicious especially the honeycomb which was the best he’s ever tasted (imagine the thick American accent as you read this). Having tasted one, his friend agreed that there was “nothing better” and promptly got up to go buy himself a whole bag of Crunchbars to take back home.

I found the conversation delightfully funny, especially since they were totally serious about it. It got me thinking.

I was informed by my dietician ages ago that if I had to choose to eat one chocolate, it should be the Crunchie because due to the fact that it’s almost 80% honeycomb, it has a very low fat content. That’s pretty much how I view the plain, boring Crunchie and ever since then, have never wanted to eat one.

But listening to someone else describing it in such an amazing, delicious way really made me re-think it and start craving one.

It’s like that with quite a few things in life that we take for granted. Things that ordinarily get forgotten because they appear to be so plain, so ‘normal’, so boring and yet are often so wonderful!

Like ‘peanut butter and jam on soft white bread’ – isn’t it just divine? Yet not something you find on the menu at Tasha’s.

Or Marie Biscuits with tea. Yum.

It’s taken me 12 years to realise that I am never going to get better

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Okay…here goes. *breathe*

Last week I dropped my cup of tea on my lap in front of a good friend and colleague. Instead of being honest to someone I trust and appreciate as a friend in my life, I lied and called myself a “stupid klutz”.

I should have explained to her that my hand was too stiff and in pain to hold my cup properly. I should have told her the truth.  But instead, I brushed it off and carried on. Since then, the pain has migrated from my hands, to my shoulder and now to my hip. It’s been like this since last year July.

The pain is so intense that it has left me crying my eyes out at night, unable to sleep. I use an infra-red massager to ease the pain. I’ve had to ask someone to give me a lift home from work on two occasions because I cannot open my hand to hold the steering wheel to drive home. KK has had to undress me some days because I am unable to lift my arms. I don’t know what to eat anymore because my diet is so restricted, yet I continue to put on weight due to the cortisone I am taking.

I am a fake. I am a liar. I am absolutely miserable.

I am tired of hiding something that I realise will never go away.

12 years ago, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Just when I had managed to gain control over the disease in my body, last year, the inflammation spread causing me to develop Enteropathic Arthritis affecting my joints and causing me crippling pain which migrates throughout my body.   

I don’t tell people I have an incurable illness. Firstly, most people will not understand exactly what I have. Secondly, unlike other illnesses, my symptoms are not something people want to hear about: bleeding ulcers, bloating, diarrhoea, crippling arthritis, pain…

I never see any glamorous running races to raise money for the Ulcerative Colitis or Enteropathic Arthritis sufferers. We don’t get a bright coloured ribbon to wear. It’s a lonely disease.

So I don’t talk about it. Instead, I hide it. I make as if it doesn’t exist. I hate it. I hate it more than you can imagine.

But I can’t anymore. I am tired of hiding it. I’m tired of carrying around this secret, this burden.

 I’ve come to realise that if I need help and support, people need to know what’s going on.

So that’s what’s going on.

I am in pain. I am weak. I am struggling to control it.

I’m scared.

Catching a homeless man is easier said than done

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Every runner has their stories: their first race; the day they achieved a PB; injuries, training successes, goals reached, trials, tribulations.

Well there’s one story which is close to my heart…

If you live in the Douglasdale, Bryanston area, you might have seen him. I call him the White Hobo. He’s an incredibly tall, youngish looking man with brown hair. He has a thick bushy beard and is dressed in old, torn brown rags. He is homeless.

He is often seen talking to himself. Once, I noticed him with a spade, cleaning the leaves and sand off the street. He always appears to be on a serious mission.

The thing that stands out the most for me is that he walks fast. Very fast! In fact, when you do see him, it looks as if he is on a mission to get somewhere. He never stops.

So one Sunday, KK and I were running down William Nicol and we happen to bump into him. Let me explain. The White Hobo was walking in front of us, in his usual fast pace. His clothes were so torn, that his bum cheeks were sticking out. As we neared him, the smell was so bad, I could hardly breathe. In my mind, I thought, no problem, we’ll just run passed him.

No such luck! The White Hobo walked at a pace faster than my running and as much as I tried, there was no way I could pass him! The faster I tried to run, the faster he walked. We must’ve done almost 1km behind him, in the smell, with a full view of his bum cheeks. It was torture. I did not want to run on the other side of the road. A part of me did not want him to feel as if he bothered us, even though he did scare me somewhat.

The torture came to an end as he turned down the next road and we carried on straight. Once he was out of sight, both KK and I stopped to breathe and to giggle about it. What a nightmare!

In “Keeping up with the walkers”, no memory reminds me of this more than that day.

I often see my White Hobo walking in my neighbourhood. I always want to stop and say hello but he never makes eye contact and never stops.

Every time I see him, I am reminded of my goals to run faster and in a way, grateful for his help. He reminds me that as a runner, I may not be the fastest, but nothing should get in my way.

I need to just keep going. I need to keep running. I mustn’t stop….

What I’ve learnt so far as a newbie blogger…

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Okay… Big news!

I’ve taken the plunge and bought the WordPress URL for my blog. This means I am the official owner of the http://www.keepingupwiththewalkers.com web address. Yahoo!

Since starting my blog in July, I have been overwhelmed by the amazing support and the interest shown in what I have to say (3 000 hits in such a short time). It’s been such fun and I thought I’d pause and just share with you some of the lessons I’ve learnt so far.

Number 1: Speak to other bloggers. Read other blogs.
Some of the best advice and support I got was actually speaking to other bloggers. They are so willing to share what worked and what didn’t work for them and gave me some awesome tips and hints. It also helped checking out other blogs and finding the ones I enjoy reading.

Number 2: Spell check. Then check your spelling. And then spell check again.
Do not rely on spell check. An epic example is where I was blogging about a serious issue and wrote ‘lunch’ cancer instead of ‘lung’ cancer. Trust me, it was a few days later before someone told me and by that stage, over 40 people had read the blog post. I wanted to die of embarrassment!

Number 3: Experiment. Play around. Learn and grow.
I was so nervous when I changed my WordPress template. I thought that if I changed it, people would not ‘recognise’ my blog. How silly. It’s more about what I’m blogging about that (hopefully) makes people want to read it than what the site looks like. Besides, change is good and my blog should reflect the changes in my life. (check out the manual I bought! Totally screams geek but I’m learning so many cool things!)

Number 4: What I think people are interested in reading… is not always what people read.
My biggest surprise was the day I posted 13 arb photos from my holiday. Not thinking that this would even interest people, I had over 400 hits. And some blog posts which I did not think would be that interesting to people have received so many comments and stirred up so much emotion.

Number 5: Make sure your boss knows about your blogging schedules.
After some clever research, I realised that by publishing my blog in the morning and evenings would ensure maximum traffic, especially since these are the times when Twitter and Facebook are most active. So I prepare my drafts in the evening and then schedule them to go out at different times. The problem is that my colleagues (some of whom subscribe to my blog) would receive my blog and think I am sitting at my desk all day blogging. I’m not… (Although I am constantly writing my thoughts in a little moleskin book which I carry around with me everywhere! Nerd alert!)

… and the biggest lesson I’ve had to overcome is …

Number 6: Exposing myself is tough.
It’s a funny thing. I somehow don’t mind strangers reading my blog. But when I get comments from family, friends and people who ‘know’ me, I do feel incredibly vulnerable and exposed. It’s as if they are getting insight into parts of me with the added benefit of actually knowing me. It’s weird to explain. I feel as if I am opening myself up when actually, I tend to be a pretty private person and do not easily share things (sometimes not even with KK).

I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying blogging. I still have so much I want to share and talk about and learn… especially now that my training for the 2012 Two Oceans half marathon has kicked into gear. *goosies*

To all of you who subscribe to my blog, thank-you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read my blog posts. I love sharing my thoughts, dreams, fears and joys with you!

Ps: @HayleyM_ thanks so much for inspiring me and your support. I love your blog! (everything inbetween)