Last week during the week I had lunchtime runs with two of my mates who are running their first marathon this year (Jamie & Geoff).
Saturday, I didn't run Parkrun, but went along to Norman Park for the Bromley Parkrun to support Mich and was delighted to see her put in a burst at the end to knock a minute of her PB.
Then we travelled to Sunbury as it was my mate Badger little boy's first Birthday. This meant a cross training session for me as I crawled, climbed and threw myself round softplay for an hour. After this I made sure I recovered by sitting down and watching Millwall secure a 2-1 victory on the box :-)
Sunday was the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon. I went through my usual routine, but having left home, within 5 mins, I was turning round to go back and pick up my Garmin. Mich will tell you that this is my usual routine, as I normally forget something!
As you are probably aware, it was a bit cold at the weekend. I was fortunate enough, that another mate of mine (FatPants) lives less than a 5 minute walk from the Start Line. So I was able to stay warm at his until 15 mins before the start. At the start I bumped into a few PWR's and also managed to catch up with a couple of other people that I knew.
At the start was the Bloco Fogo Samba band that had everybody jigging away, this was reminiscent of the Barcelona Half Marathon the week before, along with the distance of 13.1 miles that was where the similarities ended!
I am pretty sure the race started 3 minutes early, probably because the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells was freezing his proverbial off and had a mug of tea and a bacon sandwich with his name on it.
The course is undulating and in fact in the first 3 or 4 miles there is quite a bit of down hill, this meant that I put in a couple of miles around the 7:30 m/mile pace. I was going quite nicely.
Everybody knew about the 'Big Hill' around the 7.5/8 mile mark. Now when I started running with Petts Wood, our club coach Richard could vouch that if there was anything with more than a 1% incline, I would pipe up saying "Richard, I thought you said there wasn't any more hills" Over the last year and a half I have now embraced said hills and in fact, I quite relished the almost mile long hill. In fact I still managed to put in a sub 9m/mile despite the incline.
After the hill is when things started to go a bit Pete Tong. I had a few twinges in my right knee and then on a couple of strides, I can only explain that it felt as if by knee was buckling. I started to slow my pace as a preventative measure, but the situation began to deteriorate. So much so, that I had to walk the last 3 miles.
My mile time after the hill was 8:14, so even if I had a 9m/mile pace for the last 3 miles, I would have still got a sub 1:50, but in the end I managed to hobble over the finish line in 2:02.
Tunbridge Wells Half Stats
In the last 3 miles I got really cold having to walk, to the point of shivering, this wasn't helped by meeting FatPants after the event (having a communication breakdown with our wives - FatPants fault) and then walking back to his house to find out he didn't have any keys. Cue more violent shivering!
This next paragraph may sound a bit strange, but I want to explain honestly how I felt during the last 3 miles.
I actually felt a bit awkward and embarrassed by spectators and fellow runners who were encouraging me and telling me to keep going. It felt as if they were looking on me with pity, that I maybe hadn't trained enough or wasn't fit enough to be able to run 13.1 miles. I almost wanted to say to everybody, "I know I can finish, I did the Barca Half last week, I am just injured" But all I could do was smile and acknowledge the encouragement.
I hope that last paragraph doesn't sound nonchalant in anyway and I have the greatest admiration and respect for anybody that is running irrespective of how long they take to get round and whether they walk or not. Because at the end of the day, they are out there doing it!
Geoff, of lunchtime running fame, finished in 1:58 which was a cracking time, in fact he passed me not long before the finish and was going to stop to see if I was alright and said to him "Sod me, keep going and get that sub two"
All in all 32 PWR's completed the half marathon. Unfortunately, Eleanor a fellow PWR who I was chatting to before hand (bizarrely about the our training, injuries and the fact that we were both scheduled to run the Surrey Spitfire this coming weekend and the Brighton Marathon in April) also suffered a knee injury and was unable to finish.
It transpires that it seems (having both seen Physios) we have both have suffered Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS). I personally think my downfall if you excuse the pun, was the downhill elements of the course. It is quite jarring on the knees and I was maybe running a bit faster than I should have done. Also having doing some research today, it seems that muscle imbalance and weak glutes (which I know I have) can magnify the issue.
So it seems that Brighton Marathon is very doubtful now :-( In some ways I am happy, in the fact that this situation has occurred for a marathon that I would just be running for myself and therefore not letting anybody else or a charity down. Plus, I can use this a valuable lesson regarding over exertion and also looking into additional strengthening and and stretching. And at least I can defer my entry until next year!
Incidentally to help me numb the pain of my sore knee, a pre planned Sunday Lunch with friends had been organised and then the 15 of us went back to FatPant's parents house and the recuperation was assisted with delightful hospitality with a couple more ales and a dip in the hottub with the kids :-)
Until next time
TJH
P.S Can you see what I have done with the title ;-)
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