Winning the Marathon on a wooden leg

Five thirty ay-em wake-up call Saturday morning.

The good news?.. Two days and three nights of compression and elevation, plus foam rolling and tennis ball attack meant my dodgy calf had improved significantly. In fact two to three more days of the same would almost certainly have been enough to resume normal service.

The bad news?.. I'm not that patient a patient. I'd arranged to meet Brendan at 6:30 the get the train from Kensal Rise to Richmond and run back.

After nervously swinging the legs over the side of the bed and putting weight on the gamy calf, I was pleasantly surprised. Didn't feel too bad. Shuffling downstairs for my porridge took it to the next level though... at once the requisite flexing caused the golfball on the right to wake up with a gentle 'Yelp!' It quickly became clear that there was still plenty to worry about... But not enough to scream a definite "No!" at me though. Pretty annoying situation. There was now a great big armchair on top of the fence with my name splattered across the front of it, and I'm pretty bad at passing up the opportunity to park my backside in a comfy looking armchair.

The possibility of putting one more decent road run on the board was a tantilising one, but I could also picture myself enduring a miserable and endless bus journey, in my running kit, cursing myself for turning a minor pull into proper injury and waving goodbye to hopes of anything other than a finish in yet another London Marathon.

By the time I was stirring the molasses into a hot bowl of oaty, complex-carbo-breakfast-mush Joe Strummer had taken control of the voices in my head and was beating out a croaky, tuneless rendition of Should I stay or should I go (on repeat).

You know I did the sensible thing don't you?

"Weeeeell? The coffee's already made... and I'm not going to go back to sleep.... It is only going to be a steady run... and anyway, it's probably a bit late to cancel on Brendan..."

[minor digression] A fairly unsuccessful trip to Runners Need on Friday had seen me return home with an oversized pair of shorts and my first ever pair of compression socks. These were almost twice the price of the ones I'd intended to buy as I stupidly allowed myself to be taken in by a sales patter which included the requirement to be 'measured' for the super duper ones. We duly went through those meaningless motions before I was handed one of the only two size options they had available in the shop which apparently would be the perfect fit for me. Amazing coincidence that. I will never learn.

So, you can guess what happened - I donned the new compression socks and, feeling rather silly, raced off to the station to find Brendan waiting for me... in almost identical kit. The train was just arriving so on top of feeling a bit stupid in my knee socks anyway, I was now part of a sort of Tweedle Dumb, Tweedle Dee sideshow as we boarded. Fortunately, the ragtag collection of Polish builders on board were too busy sleeping or fighting through the fallout from the previous evening's Tyskie tasting to point at or mock us so I think we got away with it. On the upside, my little speedy run to the station had produced no nasty side effects to speak of so I was a teeny bit more confident about the task ahead. There was no turning back now regardless as the train was already rolling westward.

Brendan took his eye off the ball at Richmond Tesco - taken in by some clever packaging and some even cleverer pricing - he opted for the 30p Tesco isotonic orange drink. I stuck with Lucozade and didn't regret it.

From Richmond to Wandsorth is a lovely run and although I was feeling pain in my calf the whole time, it never felt like it was going to pop again like it had on Wednesday. Confidence on that score gradually increased (Unfortunatley I can't credit this to the 'custom fitted' compression socks. I had to bend over to haul those up every half mile or so. If you hear it said that Nora Batty was seen jogging on the Thames path at the weekend, you'll be able to step in with the facts!).

Although calf was holding its own, our pace was pretty slow. I was able to run with the pain ok, but getting any lift out of my right leg was proving pretty difficult. This meant that generally the run took more effort than it should have. Nevertheless, the first 10 miles through to Wandsworth were really enjoyable but it got harder. After 15 miles or so we came through Parliament Square and it was becoming a tough run.

It was funny at this point though. The police were expecting demonstrations later and were out in force. They had already closed off roads and fenced off pavements. Somehow, amidst the mele of avoiding gaggles of excitable pointing foreigners and the limited pavement access points between the fencing, a funny thing happened. We accidentally found ourselves running up the middle of Birdcage Walk, completely traffic-free, flanked by crowd controll barriers and with a mob of police and tourists behind them on each side. It was hilarious. "We're winning the Marathon Brendan! One K to the finish! It's You or Me!"

The fleeting elation quickly subsided, but it's funny how it works. The little silly daydream was enough of a lift to get a better rythm going and we got up to Hyde park in good spirits off the back of it. The pace remained pretty slowly though. By now my calf was singing in vibrato and Brendan, who hadn't run over 2 hours since before Christmas wasn't looking too chirpy either. Whether it was his lack of recent mileage or the side effects of his Tesco 'isotonic' brew, he wasn't looking himself... So as we passed Kensigton Palace a series of incomprehensible grunts were exchanged by which we both agreed not to double back to Paddington basin seeking 22 miles. As we were going to be somewhere over 2 hours 50 mins for 20 miles anyway, we quickly justified the decision and headed straight up through Notting Hill to join the canal at Westbourne Park and run back to our usual finish point at Ladbroke Grove Sainsbury's.

It had been a difficult run. More difficult than either of us had expected and my calf was in bits afterwards (as were most of the rest of my legs to be fair.) The miles were complete though and although I didn't manage to get over 40 miles for the week I knew I'd done everyting I could. I could now rest.

The lesson learned from the run is a good one - the calf problem has to be completely cleared up before London or 3:15 is a pipedream. Without the full range of motion and lift from the right side, I was almost running on one leg and the effort was exhausting. Running that 20 miles at about 8:40 average pace was much harder than running the same distance at 7:15 pace had been two weeks previously in Finchley. So, finally it is time to listen to the body!

The recovery effort involved 10 agonising minutes in the ice bath, then I put on an old pair of DVT socks that Mrs Mc once boght in an airport. I kept these on for the rest of the day (including when driving for two hours to Leicestershire immediately afterwards - but that's another story!) and amazingly everything felt pretty good by bedtime. Probably not the most advisible way to manage an injury, but I think just about got away with it. Maybe time to surrender and get in the swimming pool this week though.

Meanwhile... I've enjoyed reading a few of the other 20 mile stories from the weekend and look forward to delving into a few more later. Well done everyone. Now you can start getting excited :o)

Happy running

Comments (5)

JSIMMONDS 'Dave, all the time I was reading that I was expecting you to say that you had pulled up through injury and it was all over bar the shouting. I am relieved, but also feel the need to vent at you a little bit. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING????? You have an injury man! Respect it! At least you haven't done any harm and you can now rest up safe in the knowledge that you got that final long run in. Good luck mate!' added 28th Mar 2011

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runnerbarbie01 'Oh no you are a scary runner type with compression socks! (read my latest blog post, this will then make sense) Well done on the long run but does sound rather hellish to run 22 miles with a friend who hasn't run that far in like 4 months and a gammy leg! Bring on the taper and I hope your calf gets the rest it deserves. I loved the bit about running down birdcage walk - v funny, the police and protestors must have thought you were mad x' added 28th Mar 2011

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moose10 'i hope the calf gets the rest it needs you know you shouldn't have but I'd have done the same. enjoy the taper !!!!' added 29th Mar 2011

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simonedumergue 'You are a brave man (or a mad one) pushing on through with that calf issue. I did that recently and managed to tear my calf muscle and had to rest totally for over two months :-( My calf tightness was all caused by imbalance in my glutes and hamstrings which was causing my calf to overcompensate. Have you had that checked out? Keep your eye on the main prize of London. Good luck :-)' added 29th Mar 2011

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CharlieUK 'Dave, cheers for the blog mate.. I'm a bit of a late comer to this whole buzz thing but I think I have been missing a trick. Its really interesting to hear about everyone elses running experiances and as I'm still a bit of a running newbie and a marathon first timer its really quite motivating! Love your intro of how you got into running! Good luck with the gammy calf!' added 29th Mar 2011

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Learning to Run by daveredrock

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