Athlete's Foot by Footnote

Hello from the land of feet!

I have to tell you something that happened to me last night. Running home from work in the dark I was 10 miles into my run when out of nowhere I was assaulted in my left quad and laid out on the floor in agony. I crawled to a wall and looked for my attacker who turned out to be a 1metre black bollard (with a nobbly top!).

Dealing with the embarrassment as best I could I told the many cyclists who had gathered round me I was fine and to roll on. As soon as they had disappeared (still sitting on the floor) I made sure I was on my own before I then gave out a big “arrrgghhh” and multiple hisses like a school girl! This noise is normally reserved for objects that hit your shin or when you stub your toe but last night I added hitting black bollards at full speed to list of when you can privately act like a child in public. The worse thing about it was I was 3 miles from home and could hardly walk. To make matters worse there is no bruising yet so I can’t even show off my injury to my work colleagues who I know will only show sympathy when there is blood or crutches involved. Oh well, at least now I have a distraction for the other 5 injuries I am carrying at the moment! Will I ever go through a marathon preparation without incident, illness or injury?

This brings me on nicely to a forum post I read this morning titled “Time to accept defeat?” When do you make the decision to call it a day on your marathon dreams and face the cold fact that you’re not going to be able to compete at your best come race day. The majority of marathon runners, especially marathon virgins I am meeting at the moment, tell me their first aim is to complete the marathon and then reel off the honest answer... a predicted time! Let’s be honest for a second and state the fact that if you had to walk 26.2 miles tomorrow pretty much all of you would be able to do it. Therefore I would predict 99% could complete a marathon in 8-10 hours walking at a brisk pace. The problem with this is that 99% of runners would not be satisfied with this time. Of course there are always exceptions and I am not having a dig at people who walk these times as many of them have extraordinary stories. I am just asking yourself a question: In the worst case scenario, would you be satisfied with that time? If the answer is no or achieving a faster time in a lot of pain then maybe you have to look at the option of not running.

If you keep picking up multiple injuries/ bollard collisions, you will have to make a decision on what you will be satisfied on race day. Some marathons allow you to defer your place (Virgin London Marathon has this procedure) which will allow you to run next year. This might be a sensible option for your body. Remember you are running 26.2 miles and your body will see nothing fun about your decision to run! Many of you are running for charity which adds extra pressure to your decision...

My advice would be to try and be positive and make the decision near the time. This decision can be left relatively late (the last week in London’s case, click here). This will give you time to try and get over the problems you are currently facing and make a decision with all the facts in hand. You do not have to “give in” just yet! If you make the decision not to run please try and look at the positives. You have a whole year to start planning for the next marathon rather than ignoring it for 6 months. Aim to run some half marathons later in the year to give you a stepping stone and experience to run your first marathon in style!