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Returning to Alive and Running. Heart firing on all cylinders (combustion engine metaphor)

Where was I? Atrial fibrillation started in June 2022 until I had cardioversion to shock my heart back into normal rhythm in November 2022. This was successful. Three months later I had a catheter ablation procedure which requires a line to be inserted into a vein or artery, in my case, in the groin, and manipulated until it reaches the heart. Cells responsible for the electrical misfiring are then destroyed and hopefully normal sinus rhythm returns. This was also successful and should be a more permanent solution to stopping a return of atrial fibrillation.

These procedures were straightforward and painless . My anxieties were on the high side these but, on the day,I felt much more relaxed and reassured. I’m very lucky to have Addenbrookes and the Royal Papworth hospitals on my doorstep.

With regard to running, it’s now much less effort compared to when I had AF. Previously I was doing up to 35k a week. now it’s more like 15-20k. I’m still wary of pushing myself and my Garmin is very useful in checking my heart rate. All in all I’m happy to be back running without problems.

The icing on the cake is that parkrun has returned to Milton Country park, formerly known as Cambridge parkrun, three weeks ago, following a three year pause. What a joy to meet up with old running friends. Everyone was visibly happy to be back and there was great atmosphere. Lots of people put a huge effort into organising its return to Milton Country park and I’m very grateful. Exactly why it stopped and how it came back remains a mystery to most people.

Tomorrow, May 6th, is showbiz time. King Charles 111 will have his Coronation and the nation will lose its collective marbles.The unthinking, manipulated masses will marinate themselves in fawning adulation and obsequiousness and the rich and powerful will fall over themselves to demonstrate new levels of sycophancy. This is a hideous spectacle I can’t miss. I’ll be watching on TV, shaking my head, tut tutting and struggling to take in the enormity and wrongfulness of the event. It is a supreme example of privilege, wealth, power and class. For all his laudable charity work and supposed outspokeness on specific matters, you’ll not see Charles doing shifts at a Food Bank or urging the return of the Sure Start Children’s Centres or decrying the cost of living in any meaningful way. He’s a relatively safe pair of hands who can deliver gravitas to speeches convincingly, receive respect and admiration, appear very rich but “hard working and devoted to duty,” and can maintain the whole edifice of a royal fantasy. It’s showbiz and celebrity culture aided and abetted by public money.

God save the King. God save us All

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Winter running. The cold, the wind, the mud. It’s predictable, like Tory sleaze.

Two daughters and one boyfriend ran the Cambridge 10k the day before I ran the half last October. It all went very well. It’s satisfying that all my five children have been running at some stage and will return to it when their circumstances allow. Running. Who wouldn’t want to do it, huh!

I’ve managed to run consistently since my last post in November 2021, without injury, and covering 30-35k weekly. I now have a new running chum whom I meet weekly in an adjacent village. This has resulted in new running routes, which is very welcome, since I have relied on just two for years. It’s also added a new dimension to running, namely, chatting. Having been a lone runner for decades, I wouldn’t have guessed this would be conducive, but it is. Of course, our weekly runs aren’t competitive. My strategy in any races we do together is to encourage chatting while I listen attentively and then pull ahead towards the finish, using the reserves of breath I’ve held back. It’s a fool proof wheeze. Possibly.

I’ve also returned to parkrun on an occasional basis. Occasional because of the covid risk but also, since the sad demise of Cambridge parkrun at Milton, because of the travel involved. Storey’s Field, Eddington, a new town on the edge of Cambridge, is my chosen parkrun at present. It’s very well organised and there are plenty of familiar faces, yet I still pine for Milton.

Under two weeks until the Cambridge half marathon. I’ve now done two training 21k sessions and feel set to go. The last Cambridge half was in October 2021, deferred from the previous March, so now it’s back to its original time of year.

Prime Minister’s Question time, broadcast live on the BBC each Wednesday, never fails to be an education. Boris Johnson, having won the last election with a vast majority, has proved that you can fool most of the people, most of the time. Huge swathes of traditionally Labour voters were persuaded to leave Europe based on government cultivated xenophobic anxieties regarding immigration, loss of British jobs to foreigners, loss of British sovereignty and jurisdiction and the assertion that the haemorrhage of tax payers money to the EU would cease and go directly to boost the NHS. What is it about the British electorate that provokes them to regress to uttering simplistic demands about “wanting their freedom back” and instancing minor examples of European law and bureacracy?

The Ukraine crisis has proved to be a get-out-of-jail card for Johnson, allowing a diversion of attention away from the government’s handling of Covid and the scandal of numerous social parties organised by the government during the lockdowns, egregiously breaching their own rules, and showing contempt for ordinary people. Johnson clearly revels in playing an inflated role as the elder statesman on the world stage. He does this well, with confidence, conviction and powers of persuasion instilled in him by his class and education. That’s how the Tories excel. They project and amplify emotions that target the electorate’s fears, anxieties, prejudices and sense of being disadvantaged. They shamelessly use their own statistics to demonstrate success, relying on a credulous electorate to be impressed. Think about the thousands of extra nurses, doctors and billions going into the NHS. Don’t think about the previous lack of investment and cuts to services and loss of hospital beds. Do be awed by the repetition of billions of PPE items obtained during the pandemic and regular announcements of further billions of pounds being expended on the NHS. Don’t mention the government reacted slowly to provide equipment, or abandoned care home residents to die in their tens of thousands. Or that a a large scale excercise concerning management of a pandemic a few years earlier pin pointed exactly what was needed to meet such a contingency, but had its findings and recommendations ignored.

This is what the Tories do best. They are, collectively, a master class in expert, nuanced manipulation directed against a softened up, beguiled public in thrall to posh boy politicians and hard nosed, cruel female counterparts.