You know it dawned on me sometime near the beginning of the month that I didn’t even mention the result of only the biggest event to happen to me this year – the radiotherapy. Well, I actually got the long-awaited call on the 28^th of September and then managed to eventually bury it.

So, three months after the radiotherapy, the telephone appointment was here and the consultant called me. I had previously tried to not get too carried away. Would the PSA halve? Would it be at zero? I went through the whole array of numbers and eventually gave up, it had the potential to just take over. My PSA was at 0.22. Not up or down but exactly the same as before the radiotherapy course. I was stunned. He quickly followed up saying that the main thing was it hadn’t gone up but it had stabilised. 

All I heard was 0.22, unchanged. 

He said it wasn’t anything to worry about and he would expect it to go down over the next three months. That would mean the next appointment at the end of January 2024 will be the crucial one. I fussed over it for a few days and then I largely forgot it. It briefly resurfaced when I attended the funeral of my friend that died after his radiotherapy had failed (we were undergoing it at the same time) and it has since been largely forgotten again.

The main distraction for the month was the charity run. The big 10k. I had been 6 months in preparation for it and here it was. The morning started out foul. It was raining heavily, like monsoon vertical with the wind heavy. I had always used the rain as an excuse to run another day but now I had no choice. Thankfully after getting ready and a half hour drive it had blown over to a very light drizzle. I was tasked with getting and bringing the Prostate Cancer UK running vests, so I had to make sure I was there nice and early.

I knew I could do the 10k in a respectable time, I was hoping for under an hour but 1 hour and a few minutes would be very good. The preparation was better this year than last. I ran only a 5k mid weeks and rested the rest of the days, unlike the year before last when I had the great sense to run a 10k two days before and paid the price on the actual day with shin splints very early on. I also didn’t repeat the second mistake I made last year when I had an energy drink in the morning.

I know only too well the effect that diet coke has on my post prostate bod. It practically goes straight through me and requires several trips to powder one’s nose. I didn’t think an energy drink would have the same effect until I was turning the air blue in McDonalds having to relieve myself in the middle of the run. There would be no sympathy had I tried to pull a kerbside relief like Paula Radcliff did on a televised run. I can see the headline now. In fact, I did well this year and the only thing I had forgotten was the light rain jacket I had purchased especially for this run.

Last year there were 9 of us doing the run. Through word of mouth via other runners and a sizable contingency of guys from North London, who know our organiser, the number of runners swelled to a massive 23 and of those three were women. We waited for all to arrive, which delayed the start by 30 minutes. After some introductions, pictures, a 10-minute warm up and a prayer we were all on our way.

I was very quickly in the lead and was running strong. It didn’t last long though. I was overtaken at about the 3km mark by some young whipper snapper and despite promising myself I would catch up to them I never did. It was uneventful up to the 6k mark and then it got somewhat easier. The actual 10k finale came as a surprise when it happened as the actual route is nearly 11km and the app on my phone was running but not displaying on my locked screen. My time was 1 hour, 4 minutes and fifty odd seconds. Not my best on my first ever attempt at just under an hour but actually better than the last time we ran which was 1 hour and 8 minutes, so I was very pleased. There were some runners who had never attempted a 10k before so they signed up to do 5k and the women thoroughly enjoyed themselves and vowed to be back with a vengeance next year.

Once everyone had finished and we got some photographs we all ventured off to a local greasy spoon. Our organiser Kevin had called them in the week to warn them that we were coming but they may not have believed him. We absolutely took over the place in the nicest way possible. Apart from giving the café one of their best days ever we actually had a celebration. We celebrated one of the guys that had run as he had been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, we celebrated Kevin’s upcoming birthday the next week and I even got a mention. We even had a sing along and got a couple of the locals, who had ventured in, to sign or tap along. I went up towards the end to get some drinks and the owner of the café asked if it was alright if she took a picture of us all.

Now you only get your picture taken in a café if you have stiffed them on your bill, you are someone famous or they loved your company.

Well, I definitely paid my bill.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/team-one-in-four-24