I Run For Chocolate.....

The Cadbury marathon was a race I'd always fancied running.....I love Hobart, I love running and I love chocolate. My Australian relatives and I were going to be on holiday in Tasmania at the time of the race and so I had a difficult decision to make....to run or not to run?

If you don't enter in time, you can't
expect to be at the right end of the alphabet

I couldn't really work it what was going on with my shin.....I'd rested it for about 7 weeks but there was still a significant lump there.....but then again I done many miles of running and racing on it before it was finally diagnosed as a stress fracture. I did the Hobart parkrun (which is not exactly in Hobart) with my cousins on the Saturday, and though I could feel it, it didn't seem to make things worse.....though I did feel very lumbering and unfit.

The race route

The marathon route appeared to be two big laps, with a few initial loops around the factory, so I decided to give it a go, knowing I could pull out after the first few little loops, or even at the halfway point without having a long walk of shame! Still, I wasn't overly impressed with the 4:30am bus to the start....but at least it meant that I could have some coffee and extra cereal right by the line before day broke.

Luckily it was light by the time that we actually started running, though it still didn't help stop the front runners going the wrong way. The "laps of the factory" were actually around the housing estate there so there was rather a lot of up and down  cornering. The lead men then started to run down a steep hill towards the main course for a few metres before realising they'd missed the 90 degree right hand turn for the next lap of the houses.

By the time we finally headed down the hill to the "main course" people had settled into their positions within the field. I was actually running in second place which quite surprised me, but I figured that I should just relax and enjoy the first half, neither trying to chase down the lady in front, nor worrying about the second half. I knew that even if my shin didn't feel sore, the was no way that I had the fitness to run a whole marathon at anything like my usual pace. I decided to run the first half and then either stop or pull back for the second half.

Smiling at the thought of chocolate,
cake and waffles :-) 

This decision notwithstanding, I did have several moments on that first "lap" of questioning what exactly I was doing....why I was running at all if I wasn't going to run a decent time.....and debating how to pull out without looking like a total idiot. We turned off the main road and did a random lap of a school carpark and I waved at my friend Rachel who wasn't far behind me. That spurred me to keep going as there was a chance that I would drag another lady along with me too fast (Rachel knew that I was only running the first half at a decent pace) and so enable my friend to pass her later on if she faded.

The route was far from flat, which actually helped relieved the boredom of basically running along the side of a road. We were heading in towards Hobart for a long stretch but then turned and climbed up onto a bridge over the river. The furthest point of the course was at the far end of the bridge so I got to see the leading men coming back towards me as I crossed over. In fact, the turnaround wasn't quite where I thought it would be as we had to run up a hill on the highway away from the bridge before we could come back, but the leading lady looked strong as she powered back down it towards me. I had a decent gap on the 3rd and 4th ladies but they were actually working together quite well as I waved at them. 

Don't worry, I wasn't "racing"
the buggy!

On the way back towards Cadburys I could feel myself coming to the limit of my fitness, but I really wanted to get past the halfway point before I was overtaken by the leading half marathoner (who'd started 30 minutes after us). As it turned out, I was past my 23k marker before he flew by me going into his last km of race (a "training run" after a spell at altitude in preparation for the Commonwealth Games marathon).

I seemed to be getting closer and closer to the steep hill back up to the factory which didn't bode well, but luckily the turnaround came just before the road ramped up. Surprisingly I wasn't that far behind the leading lady, and was further ahead of the other two than I'd thought I would be, but I knew that there would be no heroics. I slowed my pace down and even took walking breaks on that lap, though the last stretch back to Cadburys again still seemed interminable.

The goodies were so worth it!

When the two ladies finally overtook me, I moved over for them and gave them a shout and a cheer. I was now in the midst of people doing the 1-lap half marathon and guys coming past me to complete the marathon. I knew that my family would all be waiting for me, so I made sure that I ran strongly up the final hill and crossed the line in 4th place in just under 3:06. I think my two halves differed by more than 20minutes, but I was actually quite pleased that I'd stuck to my plan of running harder at first and then consciously backing off. I'd certainly earned that chocolate, cake and waffles at the finish line, and even got a sneaky massage in before cheering my cousins in from their 10k and their 4 daughters in from their 1k. 

On a side note, the (British) physio that gave me the massage noted a swelling and imbalance in my hips.....I really had give myself a bursitis from the cycling accident the day before flying out.....between that and my shin, I was definitely going to rest up again (while eating all my hard-earned chocolate) 😊😊😊

My Nightmare.....

I run because I love running.....not because I "have to" or because I "should"....and it seems strange to think of a life these days that doesn't involve me running fairly regularly.

If you bear this in mind, you can guess how upset I was to return from Oman to several voicemails from my GP, telling me that I had a significant stress fracture of my anterior tibia. I had had a lump to my shin from April-May time, but it hadn't been behaving as a stress fracture "typically" does. It would be sore when I started running, but then ease off, though the lump would swell slightly and hence be a bit larger and tender when I finished. It hurt to land in certain positions, eg when trying to do drills, and occasionally when running downhill especially on rough ground. I'd queried a stress fracture in the spring but had been reassured that this wasn't the case and so after a short period of rest I was given the OK to continue running.

My NIGHTMARE!!!!!!

The lump, however, just didn't go away, and neither did the random incidences of pain. Eventually I asked my GP to refer me for an X-ray and and ultrasound as we thought it could possibly be a herniation of soft tissue through a fascial plane. While awaiting these tests I ran the 100k in China and the York marathon, but they were finally done just before I went to Oman, though no results were available.

As it turns out, the ultrasound was normal but the xray showed a thickening of the outer surface of the bone, with a large lucent (black) line across the front surface of my shin. This is the classical appearance of a stress fracture - and of one that had been there for a significant amount of time as it takes a few months for them to show up on an X-ray. I couldn't really understand how I'd managed the races I'd done, but there was now noting for it but a period of rest.

I did a bit of this.....

And some of this.....

I'm not good with rest.....well, actually I am, as I am innately lazy.....but it did make me feel rather guilty. Not only had I lost my fun activity, but I'd also lost my stress-relief. I knew I was becoming rather unfit and deconditioned, so I managed the occasional bike ride.....but I think more cakes were consumed than miles covered. 

The "normal" thinking with a stress fracture is that when you no longer get "pain with everyday activities" you can start a slow return to running. Unfortunately I didn't have this pain to guide me, so all I could do was get a repeat xray 4 weeks later.....no change, so more rest! :-( 

And then some of this....

Being "youthed" at park run?

I confess that New Year's Day was a slight blip in me "behaving" as I accompanied friends to do something that I've never done before......a double parkrun. We ran Sedgefield first (well, when I say "ran".....there was a sheet ice section of each lap that had to be tiptoed across) and then 90 minutes later, ran at Albert Park. Neither run was especially fast....I could blame the dogs that had to be negotiated at Albert Park, or the ice at Sedgefield....or I could claim that I was trying to be sensible, but actually I just wasn't very fit anymore. 

The results of my cycling incident!

Anyway, after this I went back to being "good" for a couple of weeks......though the weather wasn't exactly conducive to cycling either.....a sheet ice incident saw me totally snap the hangar and derailleur off my bike and render myself unable to sit down due to hip bursitis! Calamity Jane has nothing on me.......running is so much safer (and easier) than cycling!