My story – Andrea Davison

Hi everyone, I love reading everyone’s blogs so I thought I’d give it a go myself.

I’ve been a member of rrrr for over a year yet still haven’t managed to make it to any training session (is that some sort of record?) Saying that though I have met some lovely people and had fantastic support in races.

Ok here’s my story..

In 2009 at the age of 29 I was pretty much crippled with sciatica down my left side. I struggled to stand let alone walk, I couldn’t sit or lie down unless I was dosed up on painkillers. After an MRI scan I was diagnosed with two herniated discs in my lower back. This was what was causing the pain in my leg as it was pressing into my sciatic nerve. None of the treatments they tried worked so in December 2009 I was booked in for a discectomy & decompression on my L4/L5 discs. This worked wonders, although I still had pain it was nowhere near what I was used to.

12 months later however the pain was getting worse again. I was referred again to the specialist who told me as I’d already had the discectomy operation I’d need a spinal fusion which would mean inserting a metal plate limiting my movement. Gutted.

In July 2011 I went in for the second bout of surgery. When I came round the surgeon told me that he hadn’t needed to perform the fusion as there was enough there to redo the discectomy & decompression again. Yay! Except I was told that my movement would be severely limited as there was so little of the disc remaining.

With a lengthy bout of physiotherapy I began to feel much stronger. The outcome was not like the first operation, for the first time in years I actually had no pain.

Just before Xmas 2014 I decided I wanted to lose some ‘mummy’ weight. Incredibly unfit I couldn’t even run round the block! Plus I was terrified of my back problems returning. So I set myself little goals. First week run 1k, second week a mile, third week 2k. But I got stuck at 2 miles & couldn’t get past it. My friend Gemma who runs for Wesham had been saying for ages that I should get myself down to parkrun so in April I agreed to meet her at Preston parkrun with her son. Having never run 5k I thought it’d be a great idea to run it with my son Eli in the jogger (I’m pretty dumb like that) Good god I almost died! I kid you not. But I managed to complete it pram & all in 33:43. Since then I’ve run parkrun a further 12 times so I guess it didn’t put me off.

Ive always said that its never really about times for me but since that first 5k my pb now stands at 28:25 which I am immensely proud of 🙂 My next goal is to get my 10k under an hour. I’m sure I can do it with a kick up the bum.

I’ve run in 5k races, 10k races and even done a half marathon. Each race is a milestone for me when I think back to the days I couldn’t even stand up. Chester marathon in October will be my biggest challenge to date. Saying that though I cannot wait!

I know that the day will come where I can’t run any more but until then I’m giving it my best shot 🙂