After diagnosis from Twitter followers and Google, I concluded I’d badly pulled the muscle between my ribs. The reality was I’d only be able to manage light exercise in the 2 weeks leading up to Stoke at best, at worst I’d have to consider not running the race. Given at first deep breaths hurt and moving in my sleep meant pain that woke me up, I only managed to climb and play squash once in the 2 weeks before the weekend of the run. During the time off I realised just how bad a long term injury must be (I was pretty frustrated even for such a short spell) and also discovered the wonders of pain relief gel, it’s fantastic, trust me!

Half believing I was okay to run, but also worried I hadn’t ran for 2 weeks before a half marathon, I tried a short 5km run on the Friday before. A mixture of hayfever during the day, being desperate to run and so going off too quick, and slight apprehension about my ribs meant I came back, exhausted and worried about how I’d do on the Sunday. I contemplated after just how hard I find it to not really push when it comes to the events. This time I was scared I could aggravate the injury and was told by a number of people to either not run it or to do it really slow and careful.

Come the morning of the race I’d decided to just go and enjoy it (yes, you heard me, enjoy a half marathon), but knowing a couple of runners also taking part in the race, I couldn’t help but be determined to give it a good go and held out slight hope of a decent time on the premise a break may have helped (positive until the end). Then as with the previous race, getting to the start line proved a mess, with roadworks on the A50 delaying me by 20mins and then waiting in a queue for the car park for 20mins to be told it was full and to go find somewhere else with 10mins to go before the race began. Running from the car to pick up the timing chip and then to start line, I found the race had started 4mins or so earlier. So I had quick drink and breather (I’d just ran half a mile fast to the start line) before crossing the line in what was already fairly hot conditions.

With few people around me and frustrated to have missed the start, my first mile was far too quick at 7:30mins (I should’ve been at 9mins to hit sub 2hr) but it meant I was soon in with the tail of the race, passing people and feeling pretty strong doing it.

All this over taking and I was soon at the first water station. I felt thirsty but didn’t want much more of the sugary Lucozade drink I’d ran with again (they just don’t go down well when it’s so hot for me) so I ditched it and grabbed a bottle of water to carry. Then came the first proper incline just after 4miles, a long stretch of perhaps 1/5 of a mile at a steady yet quite decent gradient that had a number of people far back stopping and walking. This at first spurred me on, but also was a bit annoying as I was soon dodging in and out from people stopping and walking right infront of me.

Despite this hill, I was soon passing 6milesat around 52mins, and completing miles at just over 9mins I was running at perfect pace, which was fantastic. I was feeling the heat but the time was promising and my ribs felt fine. With a nice fairly flat section coinciding with 10mins of cloud cover I picked up my pace and started to cruise past people. But when the sun did come back, I didn’t slow down quick enough and was soon feeling really thirsty. Thankfully the crowds had plenty of drinks to hand I stopped shortly after the 2nd water station for more water.

My legs by the 8/9 mile markers were beginning to tire more than usual, which I’d expected given lack of running before. But with the sun growing stronger and a couple of hills just before 10, my pace started to fall away. The hill at just after 11miles really finished me off, so I stopped running and walked for about 15 seconds, still painful even at that pace, it hurt physically to walk it and mentally to feel I’d been beaten by a course.

I don’t remember too much after that, mainly due to how dehydrated I’d become, apart from the final section lined with locals out cheering people on (amazingly helpful), which I managed to sprint to finish in 2:08:55.

It was an odd race, as my reasons for running it (as you can see from the Hinckley article) were blown out of the water to start with by the rib injury. Arriving late to the start line and then constantly overtaking the pack, unable to find someone to run alongside, made settling into a pace difficult. But with everything else seeming to be wrong, I managed to relax and enjoy myself. The course was hard, but I liked that, and the support was absolutely fantastic. Once again a race wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but I’m over the moon by my reaction, having let off conditions play on my mind and frustrate me at Hinckley. The time, whilst my worst for a half marathon, was respectable given the conditions and despite woeful organisation, I’ve never enjoyed (and smiled through) a race so much. I loved it and can’t wait to go back next year.

With my ribs feeling healed and legs/feet about recovered from the race, I can focus on running regularly in preparation for the 10km Sherwood Pines race on July 19th but with my sights now set on the Alps. I’ve been doing a hell of a lot of walking and some climbing to break in kit and get my legs used to long days walking, so I’m going to put together a pre trip post in between this and the 10km race to cover what I’ve been up to and expect from the trip.