Monday, March 23, 2009

A really good Half Marathon race at Silverstone on the 15th March followed by disaster!!

On the 15th March I competed in the Flora London Silverstone Half Marathon and what a great event this was. The organisers did a great job and it was a fantastic race. For me, it was especially good as I put in a strong performance and got a new PB of 1:52:30 (and all this still feeling like I could have gone faster, wonderful!). I finished the race and felt on top of the world; however later in the day my left ankle/foot started to ache and initially I assumed it was just the after effects of my exertion during the race (after all my legs ached a little too!). However come Monday morning I wasn't able to walk without significant pain and it was clear that it was something more serious. Anyway, I decided that the best course of action was to take a few days rest from running to see if it would go of its own accord (hoping of course that it was just a minor strain or something similar). So after 3 days of no running at all I ventured out for a short run last Thursday morning but unfortunately I could only manage 1 mile and a very slow mile at that before my foot was throbbing too much and I had to stop...so I decided to not run at all for the rest of the week and over the weekend to see if I could get back on track this week. In the mean time I have been wearing a support and treating it with both ice treatment and heat treatment trying to speed up recovery. This morning was the next test, so I headed out early this morning with it all strapped up hoping that I would get at least a good 30 minute run under my belt and that the injury wouldn't be a problem.....however after just 4 minutes I was in a lot of pain and in my heart I knew that I was not going to be able to do the full 30 minutes that I had set out to do. I carried on and did 2 miles, but I had to stop at this point because of the pain and I feel that by actually running on it (even though it seemed to be getting better) has now inflamed it again! I am feeling very anxious as I know that this could mean the end of my London Marathon challenge and this is something that I have been working hard towards and of course looking forward to. Also, if I don't run I will feel very bad about letting everyone down that has pledged money for my chosen charity. I feel this morning as if I am in a quandary, not sure if I should give it a few more days or another week or so and see if it is OK; or whether this is really leaving it too close to the marathon deadline, without the required amount of training and then it would be silly to run anyway...or maybe I should just accept what has happened and now try to defer my entry to next year (not sure when the cut off for this is?).....oh what a disaster...I think the best course of action is to speak to the FLM organisers today to see what my options are and take it from there..........I am feeling very disappointed :-(

2 comments:

RoyMcC said...

Charlie have you not been to the doc?! You could be doing more damage by running. Anyway, hope you recover soon. What was your time (can't see it posted)?

Charlotte Dutch said...

Hi Roy; no not seen the Doc as last week I was away all week on a training course and it seemed to be getting better with rest, but I am seeing a physio this afternoon (so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't anything serious). I got a PB at Silverstone 1:52:30 - so very pleased with this, thanks for spotting that I hadn't included my finishing time! - I will edit the post to include it.