Sunday 25 July 2010

The Six Million Dollar Mag

The recovery continues! I haven't had my "Moon Boot" on for 4 days and haven't had to use my crutches for 3 days. That's all well and good but the best sign of my recovery is that the swelling in my ankle and foot is right down.

It's been a good week. I've managed to cycle 18 miles, walk countless miles around the office and Metrocentre and most important of all, of course, I've been able to drive.

The Paddy Power Bionic Ankle is ready to be put to the test even more next week. The plan is to hit the gym before work and do an hour on the bike. At lunchtime, I'll be spending an hour on the cross trainer. After work, I'll be doing an hour of so of swimming. I say "or so" because it depends when Run Geordie Run Junior turns up. We normally end of playing swimming games and throwing inflatables around.

It's going to be a tough week but hopefully the first of many like this. My ultimate aim is to make the first run I do as pain free as possible. Whenever that is! October hopefully!

I've found it quite fascinating recently, thinking about one of my childhood heroes; Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man. As sad as it sounds, taking my mind back to when I used to wear a red suit similar to the one above and running in slow motion, has really help me come to terms with the accident, the operation and now my recovery.

I think it would take a psychologist to fully figure this one out. Not once have I ever regretted falling off my bike and breaking my ankle. I think the childish part of me is thinking it's quite cool to be part "bionic". In fact, scrub that. All of me thinks that it is quite cool to be part "bionic". Imagine, my joy when I found the image above. It appears that, like me, Steve Austin was sponsored by Adidas (look at his trainers!). That's pretty bloody cool actually!

If Lee Majors happens to be reading this and would like to join me for a few miles during my run across the USA in 2011 then I'd be a very happy man indeed. Lee - my email address is sponsorship@rungeordierun.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

I'll keep the blog updated with my progress next week but, in the meantime, I'll leave you with a few thoughts:

"Mark Allison, Geordie runner; a man barely able to crawl. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic ankle (sponsored by Paddy Power). Run Geordie Run will have that ankle. We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."