Even though the race did not go according to plan, I felt that I had bettter get this written and out of the way. To say I am upset about how it went, would be an understatement, after all the training I had put in and it goes so badly wrong. It's never easy writing your blog when you don't have something good to say but you cann't always write about the good races. It is the bad races that make you a stronger and better runner.
Going into the race I felt like I was in the best shape I had been in for a long time. I even had a few nose bleeds which for me is normally a sign that I am fit. I did have a few niggles along the way, mainly a pain in the neck which caused me to loose some training at the start of my schedule but it never really bothered me during my runs, so I did not over worry about it and I was confident that it would not be an issue during the race.
Well onto the race then: The race started well for me but I was unsettled and it took me a while to get into a rhythm and warm my body up. To say it was bloody cold was an understatement. I was just glad I was running rather than standing about getting cold. I got to half way 32 miles feeling good but then I develpoed what I thought was some cramp on my right thigh a couple of laps after the 50km mark. I took some Dyorilite and tried to run on but the pain just got worse. My support crew suggested a massarge, the first one helped me and I got back running but the pain soon returned. It got to the point I could run but if I tried to go any faster the pain become unbearable so I felt I had no option but to run as hard as I could with the pain bearable. Every stride hurt to the point I felt like I was running on one leg.
I had never felt any pain or discomfort in my right thigh during any of my training runs. So when the tightness came on during the race I had no reason to think it was anything else but cramp. Still to this day I am not sure what caused it but the mussle from the hip to my knee remains tender during physio.
On the second ,massage during the race at about 75K the physio added tape as they thought it would help, but by then the damage was done and it made no difference as the pain remained constant. Stevie wanted me to stop, and blocked my way as i came through. There was no way I was stopping wearing a Scotland vest and just pushed past him. If I I had to crawl to the finish then that was what was going to happen. It certinly felt like I was crawling at the end.
In those last 25 laps I went from 2nd to 6th and I lost my scottish title, which hurt as much as the pain in my leg, but I finished it!
So there goes another 100km and not the result I wanted. I know there is a good race inside me and one day it will happen. So until then back to the training and the dreaming of the perfect race.
