Something is telling me that my running, and the pursuit of my racing goals, needs to take a back seat for now. Six weeks out from the London Marathon, and after a series of poor workouts, I reached breaking point. I ran myself into the ground. I literally couldn't run. It was as if someone inserted an iron rod behind my left knee and I had trouble extending it quickly without pain.
This was a huge blow to my marathon preparation. There was no chance that I would run a 1:27 time at the Reading Half Marathon in a week, which I was treating as a warm-up race, and a sub-3 hour time at London was pretty much gone. I was gutted, and to be honest I'm still reeling from this and I'm losing confidence in my ability to run a good race at London.
The physio advised me to stop all running for a week and withdraw from the Reading Half Marathon, to give me the best possible chance of recovery for London. I asked whether it was possible that I could at least run it very slowly, and, on the condition that I stop if there was any sign of pain, she said that I could.
This was a huge blow to my marathon preparation. There was no chance that I would run a 1:27 time at the Reading Half Marathon in a week, which I was treating as a warm-up race, and a sub-3 hour time at London was pretty much gone. I was gutted, and to be honest I'm still reeling from this and I'm losing confidence in my ability to run a good race at London.
The physio advised me to stop all running for a week and withdraw from the Reading Half Marathon, to give me the best possible chance of recovery for London. I asked whether it was possible that I could at least run it very slowly, and, on the condition that I stop if there was any sign of pain, she said that I could.
