BLIND DAVE'S BLOG

11-10-2006

Adventures with Scousers, boy band McFly turning out to be good guys and more gruelling preparation for the looming New York marathon. Just a typical week for blind marathon runner Dave Heeley.

Hi Stirrers, it's been another long hard week.With the Great North Run over for another year but the New York marathon looming, we keep pounding the road and counting the miles, 9 on Monday, 13 on Wednesday, 9 on Friday, 20 on Saturday and a 10k race on Sunday.

On the incident front, it's been a pretty quiettime -thankfully, as my hands needed a rest fromall those cuts andbruises. Mind youI've had a few soakings. Howcome the rain always stops when I go indoors and when I'm making my way around the town it starts again? Something's not right,. I'm going to put in for one of those hard top guide dogs, with window wipers and electric windows, it would certainly make for an interesting life.

Not long now before we fly off to New York - and talking of flying brings me onto the boy band McFly. You may remember thatTheStirrer wrote a few weeks ago about a charity cricket match where a certain young man called Harry Judd, the drummer with the group,should have been playing, but unfortunately he never showed up, to the distress of a lot of young ladies, one in particular, a little girl called Olivia.

Olivia is a little girl in remission with leukaemia, she is also our next door neighbour and we have seen first hand what the family has gone through from the day she was born.. She waited with her CD in hand, all day, at the cricket match to meet Harry, but he didn't show. However, wherethere's a will there's a way.

I made a phone call to Mr. David English, the founder of the Bunbury cricket team who Harry should have played for,explaining the whole situation and he in return gave me a contact and a phone number which I rang and hey presto, there was McFly, or should I say their manager.

Yes you've guessed it, Mom, Dad and Olivia were invited to a venue in Manchester on Friday 6th October, where young Olivia got her dream come true. She not only got to meet Harry but the rest of the band, they had photos taken, they autographed every thing she had, including the CD. In fact Jane, Olivia's mom said it was an absolutely fantastic day, Olivia was one very happy young lady and I was told even Dad, Paul, enjoyed the concert afterwards.

Olivia'sforgiven Harry for not turning up, but her mom said only a seven year old could have introduced herself to Harry , not by saying hello, butby demanding an explanation as to why he never showed atthe cricket match. When Jane told me this I thought it was an absolute classic and Harry's face was apparently a picture. It'snice to hear good news for a change.

Sunday offered a first for us all, not in the winning sense, but we took part in the Liverpool 10k and it was certainly an experience, as Mac my guide had the added pressure of guiding both me and a friend Garry, a sighted runner who was once again blind folded - you may have read his article on the site last week.

We were very privileged in the fact we got to start the race -mind they didn't trust me witha starting gun, only a klaxon. Chickens!It was certainly a first for me and wehad to tag on to the rear of the runners, which was a first for all of us. Someexcellent guiding from Mac and some gutsy running from Garry, saw us pull back a few hundred competitors. Considering we were bottle necked by runners for the first 5k we were more than impressed with our progress and as the run came to a close, Mac found spaces for us to claim even more scalps and finish in a very reasonable time and place.

We found it to be a well organised run publicity-wise for the Guide Dogs charity; we had coverage in the local press and from a local radio station on the day and I must say the runners throughout were very courteous and understanding, especially with three runners tied together, trundling towards them.

It must have beenvery worryingfor Garry though, when at one point Mac had to put me in front, as we dodged the crowd.Garry was a bit apprehensive as he never thought in his wildest dreams that a blind man would lead him at speed , especially as he was blind folded himself, through crowds of runners.

I told him it all adds to the excitement , just trust me. We all three enjoyed it and came through it unscathed, but I think Garry would prefer in future to run with just one guide - can't say I blame him, but what the hell we're here to tell the tale, next stop the Great South and here's counting down the days to New York.

Not a bad week on the whole, a great result for young Olivia, a great run for Garry, smiles all round, that's the way to end a week, so it's Blind Dave signing off till next week.