Lyni Sargent: “I’m in pain whether I do or whether I don’t”

Lyni had always loved running; she was that child you had in class who looked forward to days with PE lessons. She loved how running helped her escape all her worries in her mind. 

All she had to do was put one foot in front of the other; she loved the simplicity of it. The runners high she felt afterwards, usually feeling good for hours afterwards. 

However, when she was 14, her passion for running came to an abrupt halt when she was diagnosed with Scoliosis, a disease which causes a curvature of the spine. 

Around 3% of the UK population suffers from Scoliosis, with it most prevalently showing in females, with most people diagnosed between the ages of 10 and 15. There is currently no known cause or prevention of the disease. 

“I was advised not to do any high-impact sport because I was in pain as a child. But it was nothing too severe initially. Doctors put it down to growing pains.” Lyni explained. 

From a young age, she was told to look after her body now to protect her body as she got older, as the impact on her hips and lower spine could develop into arthritis; that meant no more running.

So for 20 years, Lyni did as she was told; she took the painkillers while hating the side effects and didn’t engage in any sport that could cause her injury in the future. 

However, it didn’t matter in the end; she still developed arthritis and felt down and stuck in her life. 

“I thought, well, I’m going to try running again, and got the bug immediately. It does hurt, but it’s a different kind of hurt.  I weaned myself off the painkillers and managed the pain through exercise and rest instead. Then I was diagnosed with arthritis in my feet and spine. I just thought, well, if I’ve been looking after myself and I’ve still got arthritis, I might as well go and run around the world.”

With the support of her family, she decided to get back into endurance running; however, still trying to manage the chronic pain she felt in everyday life. 

She said: “I know running is not supposed to hurt, is it, as such. But everybody gets aches and pains. The signals don’t go down my spine properly. They get a bit mixed up around my sciatic nerve. So I get a sciatic-type pain shooting down my legs, and the nerves don’t speak to my feet properly, so I’m always tripping over. I have to be really mindful of picking my feet up.”

Since returning to the game, Lyni has run worldwide, including the Montane Spine Challenger Sprint, which saw her take on 46 miles across the Pennine Way. 

“I’ll never be a fast runner, never going to win any races. I think that’s why I like the long distance because, for me, it’s a lot easier than a sprint race. I’ve always been one for stamina over speed.

“I’m just happy to finish. I think too many people think they can’t do it or they’re not going to be the best, so they don’t try.”

On her first ultra, she had sat down and worked out her average speeds on her longest runs, which at that point was 20 miles and figured she should be able to run 50km in a decent time. However, when it came to it, that wasn’t the case. 

“I had worked out I could do 50km in 8 hours; however, when it became apparent that I wouldn’t finish in 8 hours, my mood plummeted. I felt so demoralised. I remember just standing at the trig point, and I’m like, I’m done. I’m absolutely done. I was in that much pain; all my joints had locked up, so the slight movement was so painful. My feet weren’t working correctly, everything hurt, and I just stood there crying.

“Then I thought, well, actually, it’ll be quicker to finish than it will be to get rescued. So you have to put your head down and get on with it. It would have been so easy to quit. And I think I finished in just under 11 hours. Like 10 hours and 50 minutes or something.”

Looking back, Lyni can appreciate that it was only a short time between her ideal time and her actual time but “at the time, it was crushing, soul destroying.”

In the past decade, we have seen exceptional people compete in endurance events; blind runner Simon Wheatcroft, Simone Perona and Chris Nikic, who became the first person with Down syndrome to complete a full Ironman. 

However, a stigma remains for people with disabilities to not even attempt such a challenge. Lyni describes her experience and is often told, “You don’t look disabled; therefore, you must be okay.”

“I don’t want to go out with a big banner saying, oh, look at me, please feel sorry for me. But at the same time, my daily living is there’s so much I can’t do that I can run. So I appreciate that running is a privilege, but cooking meals is impossible for me. I can’t hold a vegetable and hold a knife to cut it. My husband helps me around the house much more than people realise because people don’t see that.”

When people ask her why she continues to run even though she’s in pain, she tends to reply: “I’m in pain whether I do or whether I don’t; sitting on the sofa doesn’t give me happy hormones, so I may as well do the thing?”

She explains that she has found running to help her be a happier person overall, as she finds she can sleep easier after exercising. This, in turn, breaks a vicious cycle for her and allows her body to rest better and alleviate pain as much as she can.

Since re-introducing running into her life, Lyni has found that listening to her body helps her; however, she appreciates that her story is unique and that there may be many people in her position who couldn’t do what she is doing.

She said: “I don’t want to sound like anybody can do it because there are different conditions. Different yeah. It’s not a one size fits all.” 

“I found that running and doing Pilates has improved my core strength. My legs are reasonably strong, but I’m always going to have weakness around my joints, and oh, I have dyspraxia as well, which causes poor muscle tone. My lower back will never be strong because it bends the wrong way.

“It’s like my body’s like something has got to hurt. Which would you like it to be today? But I find that if I don’t do anything, all of my muscles cramp up, and it’s just a horrible ache, and I’ll sit there and be crying in pain, whereas if I run, it breaks it up somehow. Frees my joints and my muscles.”

Morocco is the next destination for Lyni and her family as she treks the highest Mountain in North Africa: Mount Toubkal.