Schedules, Schedules, Schedules...

First published in the February 2009 edition of Footnotes the magazine of Great Western Runners

If you are one of those people who from about October onwards gets annoyed or even infuriated by the amount of time spent on the London Marathon by publications such as Runners World – it’s probably time to turn over the page and see what races are coming up soon.

Try as I might I find that I have become obsessed with the prospect of running the London Marathon and sadly, currently, as each day passes that prospect gets a little further away at least for 2009. In the last few days I have discovered that marathon running can be affected by something way in the past – something that happened long before you ever considered running let alone running a marathon.

I had two schedules. My pre-schedule schedule and my actual schedule, all carefully considered, pondered over, reviewed by those in the know and yes, let’s be honest, learnt by heart. Ignoring my two weeks off waiting for the results of an x-ray (the signs were there if only I knew where to look!) my pre-schedule had gone well. I had built up to an average 35 miles per week by Christmas fitting in a 14 and 16 mile run during the festive period. At this point everything else started going wrong – the heating broke, a radiator burst, work (like lots of other peoples) got very bad – but at least I still had the marathon to look forward to. Five years of waiting drawing to a close as I ticked off each training week. I was amazing myself by enjoying training five days a week, even looking forward to those lung bursting sessions on a Tuesday night.

You already know what’s coming – something started feeling a little odd in my right ankle. More disturbing was the fact that it was my right ankle my injuries are always in the left leg – always. Hangover 10K the pain was occasionally sharp but bearable. I decided to treat it as a training run with a fast 1.5K finish. I overtook two people in the last 750M and was even thanked for towing someone else in – now that’s never happened before but post race everything began to seize up. My right leg lost the ability to bear weight my groin was sore and stiff. Panic sets in, what about the schedule!A few days later, and the allotted schedule start date but still things are no better. I’ll take a week off I think that’ll fix it. A week later still nothing doing. After three weeks it was worse and so I went to the doctors and was then referred on to the hospital physio department.
All the while the schedule slips by - untouched.

The cause of the problem was not tendon, not muscle but bone. The joint of my right ankle deciding now was the time to remind me of when I broke it 17 years ago. Ironically the cause of the break was the wall separating Redland Green from the road. I used to live opposite and often shortcut the route around by hopping over the wall. Despite popular myth amongst my family, I wasn’t under the influence at the time ( in fact the doctor said that if I had been I would have just flopped) a party, an argument and an ex had left me in a bad mood and not concentrating I went over the wall too far up. The cast, so the hospital said, was the worst they had ever seen – and now, 17 years later, I am paying the price for that grumpy fug mistake.

After four weeks I have just managed a 2 mile run. I may end up having to (don’t even say it out loud!) defer but with only 12 weeks to go I know it’s a long shot and not the way I wanted it – but forget the schedule (well the original one anyway) – I am more determined than ever, by hook or by broken, strained or pulled crook to be on that start line. Let’s just hope there are no more (broken) skeletons in the closet!