Testing, testing...

Well it's been 11 days since my last run when things went pearshaped with my ankle.  Today was glorious weather and I couldn't resist trying out my ankle (and my back) with a gentle 6 miler on some local trails.   I'm happy to report that the running seemed to help my back and apart from a couple of niggles in my foot rather than my ankle, everything seemed to be behaving.

For those of you who heard about the weather during the OMM last weekend, here's a little video clip that gives some idea of the conditions. 

Fergie Memorial run

Our club organised a memorial run for one of our members who died last year whilst on a trip to France.  It was a huge shock to us all and his many friends and we felt it would be appropriate to organise at least one run in his memory.  This was held last Sunday which fortunately, wasn't anywhere near as horrid as the Saturday had been.

It was set up as a charity fun run with all proceeds going to York Hill hospital.  We set the entry fee at a nominal £2 but with just over 100 entrants, we still ended up collecting neary £1,000 as many folk made much larger voluntary donations.  A testament more to the respect and esteem that folk had for Fergie rather than the worthiness or otherwise of the particular charity chosen.

Anyway, as I'm still "hors de combat", I was on registration and photography duty.  It seemed a good opportunity to try out our camera's "burst" mode as I normally find it incredibly difficult to get decent pictures of runners.  I think I managed to capture the atmosphere of the event pretty well on the day although I have to admit that the first photograph *wasn't* taken by me but by Kenneth Phillips (a keen local retired runner and photograher of running events).  I took a similar shot but mine was rather spoiled by sunlight.

Here are a few of the better ones (click to view full sized) and all of them my be viewed here.  (Incidentally, the dress code was to "dress colourfully").

Regarding my running, not a lot of that happening at the moment.  I'm trying to stick to my resolution to give my ankle a couple of weeks' rest but as the pain has 90% resolved, I suspect I might try it out tomorrow.  I'm still unsure what the problem is but the pain feels bony which I know sounds rather vague but based on that feeling I'm still inclined to think it's probably a stress fracture.  I might go doctor bothering if it flares up again and see if it would be worth getting my bone density checked.

I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to join in a group training run on the 30th of November though.  There's a world of difference between pounding out a road marathon & jogging along the WHW so fingers crossed it won't set me back.

Food for thought

I came across this fundraising site on the net today.  Set up on the 21st of this month with a £5,500 target and reached over £100,000 pounds today.

http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus

Seems like it struck a chord.

Ankle update

Well, I think I'm crocked again.  My ankle is still sore and gets worse with any weight bearing exercise (including walking) and from a reply on the Fell Runners forum, I'm inclined to believe that I might well have a stress fracture. 

My lack of consistent training but desire to do long races has almost certainly been the cause and if I had to pick one event, I think it would have to be Loch Ness that finally did for it.  My long run last Sunday was just the icing on the cake. ;-)

One good thing though is that I'm pretty philosophical about it and if I've got to take time off at any time of year, I'd far rather it was now when the weather's foul, the day's short, wet and windy and the cross country season beckoning. ;-)

If I had anything important in the offing I suppose I could do the old cross training bit but I'm not sure I could even cycle at the moment and swimming bores me silly.

The plan is to rest for a week or two and then try some very gentle off road runs.  If that goes okay then build up slowly from there.  If the pain comes back, leave it a couple more weeks and reapeat.

When self belief isn't enough

I've just finished reading Tom McNab's book Flanagan's Run, a novel based on a race that took part in 1928 across America.  The book is a bit corny put it's a real page turner and clearly the author knows his stuff about running, well he ought to given his background.

Anyway, after reading the book I felt all fired up and ready to run across a continent so within an hour of finishing it, I was lacing up my shoes and out the door, ready to run until I dropped at which point I'd phone the calvary (my wife) to pick me up from wherever I ended up.  The plan had been to run up the River Ayr Way from my home to Failford (at least -  maybe further), a distance of 21 miles.  Things started well but the moment I left the seafront where I'd had a following wind, I seemed to be going head-on into it.  It was spitting rain and all in all, conditions were not codusive to effortless running.

Of course the other thing not condusive to easy running was a more or less complete lack of any sort of training since the Loch Ness Marathon.  Still, I thought, never let a lack of training dent your self belief. ;-)

Anyway, to cut a boring story short, after about six miles I decided that a long open-ended run wasn't really on the cards and changed my route to take me back home in a 14.6 mile loop.  Not a bad run but somewhat short of my dreams.  Worse though was the way my ankle repeated its post Loch Ness marathon trick of being agonisingly painful for a period post run.   Last time it settled spontaneously after a day and hadn't bothered me since the LNM.  This time it seems to be fading again but by heck it was painful for a while.  I've no idea quite what's going on and I presume it's probably soft tissue but weirdly, the pain is much worse when I lift my weight OFF my foot.  It's not great on weight bearing either but ten times worse when I lift my foot off the ground.  There's nothing to see and now, 6 hours post run, barely any tenderness.  Any suggestions as to what this might be gratefully received.

I think I need to get back to some proper training and stop thinking I can run without doing my homework.

Ouch!

I didn't mention the way that my legs completely siezed up once I crossed the finish line yesterday.  One moment working like a well oiled machine, the next feeling like someone had thrown a bucket of sand in my gearbox.  It seemed to take me an age to hobble to the goody bag pick-up (about 10 yards) and then all the way to the de-chipping area (another 10 yrds!).  I then had to lift my foot on to a cruelly high bench for de-chipping (must have been getting on for 10" high).  After that is was a very slow hobble to collect my bag and off to the showers.

Fortunately, by the time I had finished my shower things had eased off a bit but I was still much much stiffer than I had been after my hill race last week and it was a strong reminder of just how much harder road marathons are on your body than trail races.

Anyway, I was feeling not too bad this morning and was seriously thinking of going on a gentle jog to loosen off after the dog walk.  I only made it about 300 yards along the beach when I became aware of a niggle behind one ankle.  In the space of 100 yards it went from niggle to agony and I could barely walk and had to cut short my walk.  After resting and waiting for my companions to bring the car back to me, I got fed up and started hobbling again slowly.  Weirdly, just before I got back to the car it started to ease off and is now just uncomfortable.

Goodness knows what's going on but I guess my body is trying to tell me something about my hopes of running next weekend.   Perhaps it's time to admit to myself that I'm not indestructable. ;-)

A friend in need...

... is a person who's prepared to reach down and help remove the sweaty sock from a marathon runner who has siezed up post race and hasn't got anywhere to sit down to undress. ;-)

Today that friend was Neal Gibson who made the mistake of sticking his head in the shower changing rooms in Inverness just as I was utterly failing to get my second sock off.  Thanks Neal, your help was much appreciated!

Of course, Neal wasn't the only friend I met today.  Most notably there was the lovely Ellen Thomson who I first spotted being interviewed for the TV before the race and who I so nearly planted a big soppy kiss on her cheek during the interview.  To my undying regret, I hesitated and missed the moment.  Darn, could have been famous for a moment. ;-)

As I said in my last blog, I planned to take it easy and deliberately made my way to the back of the field before the start and had a nice easy run for the first couple of miles before I caught up with Ellen.  We then ran together until the half way point, just enjoying the scenery, putting the world to rights and not worrying about our times.  By the halfway point though, I could feel that I still had plenty of gas in the tank so to speak and took off to see how much I could make up in the second half.  As we'd already taken 2 hours for the first half my sole aim was a sub 4 (and to try and enjoy it) and I'm glad to report that for the first time ever, I actually enjoyed the second half of a marathon!

Passed squillions of folk and caught up with a black South African who was as wide as he was tall.  Not fat but lots of muscle.  Sort of guy who looked like he could run through a brick wall as if it was wet tissue paper.  Anyway, we got chatting and he was telling me about running the Comrades marathon, Coast to Coast etc. and I spent my time boring him with the WHW & Highland Fling etc. so I think it was quits. ;-)  Anyway, a really nice guy and we helped each other through the second half.  He finished a bit ahead of me with a PB so he was well pleased.

I finished in 3:53:18 (a PW I think) but in so many ways it was a positive experience so I'm happy.  The weather was great, the company was great and it great to actually enjoy the second half of a road marathon.  That said, I don't think I plan to do it again for a while as it really does get in the way of some great hill races but I might well go up for the 10K as my wife enjoyed the trip up and it was great to meet up with so many of the WHW "family" again.

Fail to prepare and prepare to fail....

It trips off the tongue easily but I've come to realise recently that "failure" isn't as straightforward as one might think.

I have, without doubt, failed to prepare properly for the Loch Ness Marathon.  Curiously though, I find I'm looking forward to it with much less trepidation than normal and fully expect to enjoy it more than normal tomorrow.  I guess I've already given myself "permission to fail" tomorrow so I'm not worried about my time.  Also, my wife is running the 10K so it's not as if my trip to Inverness is wasted if I don't try my utmost tomorrow.  Lastly, I'm also toying with the idea of doing the Pentland Skyline next weekend so I don't particuarly want to trash my legs tomorrow in an all out attempt.  (Check out the course here)

So yes, I probably will "fail" tomorrow in the sense of no PB, possibly a PW, but I have enjoyed a great race last weekend, hope to have a good time this weekend and with luck, be fit for next weekend to do something that I love so all in all, perhaps not such a failure.

When you hear about friends who can't run because of injury it brings it home to you that no run that you enjoy is a failure.

Good luck to all those racing this weekend.  Just remember, it's not all just about the times.

I'm back!

Apologies to anyone who's been wondering what's happen with the running fool of late but suitably spurred on by JK, I'm going to try and get back to this blogging lark.

A lot's happened since my last post.  First there was the River Ayr Way Challenge which was great.  As some runners found, the signposting could have been better and local knowledge clearly helped.  I finished 6th overall (out of about 20) but missed out on a sub-7 time which I would have liked.  I hope it's going to be on again next year but whether I do it or not will depend on timing and the organisers aren't sure when it will be next year.  I've offered to put together an unofficial website for the council just to raise the profile of the event a bit more as I'm sure there would have been more interest if it had been better publicised.

I've also been up to Orkney (my first visit) since my last post.  Not the most dramatic of islands but an intriguing place nonetheless.  Did the touristy things like visiting the Italian Chapel, Skara Brae, Maes Howe etc., and did one gentle run around Stromness.  Stomach problems resulted in me "claiming" another island.  You probably didn't want to know that. ;-)

As I've mentioned before, I had been agonising over whether to do the Loch Ness Marathon or not as it clashed with other races I wanted to do.  The problem was, I had already entered the LNM before I remembered about them and as my wife is running the 10K in Inverness, I was pretty committed to going up.

In the end, I decided to run the Two Breweries race (report on the Troon forum here).  It was

 really tough, tougher than the Pentland Skyline I think (which is the week after the LNM) and that's saying something.  A lot of heather bashing and bog hopping and not as much running as I would have liked but a great race nonetheless.  Any race with free beer at the end can't be bad!

Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the beer! :-(  I had to rush back to Glasgow for a family meal so I reckon I'll just have to do the race again, preferably with a non-drinking companion. ;-)

I finished pretty well down the field (4:29 137/176) but it was just great to be out running (and staggering) through the hills again.  I have probably rubbished my legs for a road marathon but I don't care.  If I'm honest, I really don't enjoy road marathons and I think I'm going to spend more time on the hills and less on the roads in future.

Although it's probably madness, I hope to do the Pentland Skyline the week after.

Hearing about JK's foot problem has helped to remind me that I'm lucky to be running at any speed and that perhaps I should be worrying less about times and more about enjoyment.  I did the Two Breweries because I didn't want to let yet another year go by without having a bash at this race.  I'm really glad I did.