Getting to the end of my first half marathon was an achievement. It damn well felt so the next day and for a few days after as well. I could barely walk. This was all muscle pain, so not much to worry about, but the underlying achilles problem was still there and pretty much every morning I woke up with stiff and sore ankles.
So, off to the doctor's or the physio? Nope. I got a sports injury book for my birthday and read the chapter on foot and ankle injuries and even did a little bit of physio, but not much. I gave up doing hash runs as they moved from Sunday mornings to Monday evenings. I could manage a steady parkrun or a 10k training run and even some not very impressive times at local 10k events and thought the achilles injury would just get better of its own accord. Actually that sounds like I put some thought into the issue, but it wasn't that at all. The injury didn't hurt that much, just for a few minutes in the morning and meant I couldn't push hard in any run. Having not set myself any goals for hitting PBs or greater distances there was no real incentive to do anything about it.
It wasn't until I got to the end of the autumn that I did anything about it. For no real reason I started doing some heel dips (good calf stretch) at home, stretching after runs, lateral massage on the tendon and heeding the advice of fellow runners about rehab. Then I started to see some real improvement, jumping out of bed on a morning and not feeling any pain on landing and being able to push on in a run especially up hills.
My parkrun times slowly improved and I managed a 24:30 in mid-December. OK so now I was back to about where I was at the same time the previous year I decided to enter Reading Half Marathon again. I had the unfinished business of a sub-2 hour target to reach. Over the next month I did excatly the same training as before, just doing a parkrun and a 10k midweek run and cycling to work a couple of times each week. The only difference this time was a spur of the moment entry into Wokingham Half Marathon.
About a week before Wokingham I did the usual one run home from work (about 10 miles) more as a mental boost than for any real benefit to fitness. I also thought a bit more about what went wrong at Reading the year before - a lack of energy, dehydration and hitting a wall of fatigue at just over 10 miles. To try something new I got a running belt and some energy gels and vowed to take a proper drink at each water station. I also got myself a Garmin gps watch to keep track of my pace.
Wokingham HM takes place a week or two into February and it can suffer from awful weather. It has been postponed for snow and ice, but this 19th February 2012 turned out to be bright and occasionally sunny, but really cold. I went with Brian Holden and his friend Lyn and we got there just on time. I don't really know Lyn, but my impression is that she's a lover of the great outdoors as I've never known any woman be so keen to go for a pee in public! She always seems to be in the bushes on race mornings.
The course is mostly pretty flat with some undulations near the biginning and end where the first and last couple of miles are run on the same roads. The only other hills are actually just bridges over the A329(M) and M4 motorways. The route seems to have been chosen to have as little impact on the good folk of Wokingham as possible as it goes nowhere near the town centre and the crowds are few and far between. It starts on the northern edge of town and heads out to the countryside and outlying villages. You see a few spectators in the first and last mile and a few more in the few villages that you pass through, so you need a bit of mental toughness to keep it going without anyone to cheer you on. The one good thing is it is well attended by local club runners so you often come across club mates or rivals to chat to.
After about 3 miles I had been keeping a steady 9min/mile pace, I had an energy gel and a drink at the water station. It was water in cups and I slowed to a walk and made sure I drank the whole cup. This was the tactic for the whole run and it really seemed to help. I got a proper drink and a little reward and mental boost of a gel every 3 miles or so. I also got chatting to a lad called Tim who was doing the run as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award and had decided I was just at the right pace for him. It all helped to distract my mind away from thoughts of any aches, pains or tiredness.
With 2 miles to go I was feeling reasonable and could push on a bit more and I at least looked like I was finishing strongly as I crossed the line. My target was to do Reading in under 2 hours. My time at Wokingham was 1:58:14 and I was really happy with the result.
Next Time: Reading Half Marathon and more Highs and Lows
