Andy Dale runs the Brighton Marathon in April this year: especially for all those who know me - family, friends and colleagues, former and present. Follow me. Sponsor me. Love me. It's for an excellent cause.
Signing Off - Here’s to the Hoe Centre Team running for Bhopal next year.
A final Big Thank You all those who gave to date. Still room for mre to give next year and take it from 76% to 100%! A reminder to those donors as to where their money has already gone can be found by following the link above.
Andy
Look for the bump immediately above one heel but not the other.
For you the war is over.
Dr Anderson (himself a runner and, to be clear, not any kind of Nazi) said my Achilles is chronically swollen (clinical term) and that it would be a risk to run the marathon in two weeks. The risk (a very real risk) would be a rupture. A rupture would mean surgery. Surgery takes a while to happen and a while to heal from. An 18 month round trip.
He advised me to forsake the marathon and, whilst I don’t want to, I’m going to listen to his advice. We talked about causes: shoes, running style, feet, stretching (or not stretching), tendonitis vs tendonipathy. It’s too late to rest it and it get better. Basically, I probably needed to do more strengthening exercises alongside the running. He’s booked me in for physio.
Back to the cooler.
So many people have given money now and luckily I can defer the race for one more year (one off rule of the organisers). An email will follow consulting the donors.
The blog, though, will continue - probably in a new incarnation. And a plan will be hatched to run next year…
I can admit I’ve got to get a bit of help. Bit of back up. I’m phoning the doctor shortly and self-prescribing the various calf and achilles (Gastrocnemius and Soleus) stretches I already know in the meantime.
Most of what I read online says not stretching, changing the regime or poor shoes are common causes. Since I got those shoes some weeks back, I’ve had two significant injuries. But I will throw my hands up to not stretching religiously.
Let’s not lose our heads:
I don’t want to let people down. I want to complete the marathon, not become a DNF (‘did not finish’ - it’s an endurance race term, much feared). It’s a long haul one way or another.
More news as I get it.
Lost an hour. Slept properly. Didn’t run, even though I said I would. Helped my little girl with her homework. Booked a train ticket to Brighton. Achilles very mildly stiff. No chances now.
Reminder: Please sponsor me if you know you want to and you haven’t already. Just follow the link on this blog to my justgiving page. They make it easy to cope electronically: name, long number, expiry date, security number, memorable name… The banner below is a link to the charity it goes to.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning
— Winston Churchill (1942) from a speech given on the defeat of the Afrika Korps at El Alamein
…for 4 days. Tomorrow, try a little easy one again. My occupational therapist told me not to risk my Achilles. Tough week all round. Definitely an ‘If’ week.
Laid in bed rubbing my ankles. Slight stiffness and swelling felt different after 10 minutes massage. Got ready for a big run. Put out the recycling. Set the GPS. Pressed play on the MP3 player and… limped home gingerly with a stiff Achilles. 5K. 35minutes! The worst part is not understanding how it came. Apparently from my last easy 45min run after a day off. Whatever.
Mild Achilles tendon stiffness (right foot). Yeah, wrote my last entry before I registered it. No long run today. Pretty busy at work anyway. See tomorrow.
