Some injuries

I haven't run, or even worked out, since the Humber Half Marathon. My ankle was damaged in the aftermath, not to mention my suffering from some slight heat exhaustion.

However, someone else died.

http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk/Tragedy-man-32-dies-Humber-Bridge-half-marathon/story-12844078-detail/story.html



I passed this chap near the end. He was wearing a blue top (which looked extremely hot to me.) And, as I said in my last post, he appeared to be stopping and sprinting throughout the end of the race. My marathon effort saw me walking and running near the end, and overtaking some of those who were running at a slow speed the entire way. Truth be told, though, it did feel a little dubious to be stopping and walking.

However, those of us with average bodies do not have a fully free choice in such things. I think that if I had not walked during the marathon, I would have risked not being able to finish it at all.

In that half-marathon, though, I think it would actually have been more difficult to walk and then to run. Particularly if you were passing me. I was posting 7:45 minute miles in a 30 degree course on a gradient. I hit the half-way stage on for a sub 1:40 minute half. However, as I said before, I was suffering from strangely uncomfortable head pains (which, upon some casual research, may have been a lack of oxygen reaching my brain, thanks to the heat.)I slowed to a slower-than-marathon pace in the latter part, and did not feel worried (which wasn't a good sign, perhaps.)

This chap (or at least someone who looked like him) overtook me several times. On the way we both passed fit-looking people who had collapsed. Not least, we overtook a man in his 30s half-way up the aptly named cardiac hill. All semblance of racing the course had, for me, gone at that stage. However, I was determined to not 'walk' or at least to keep a running action.

http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/photo.py?event=Sports/CPUK/2011/Humber%20Bridge%20Half&photo=BERB2012&match=1452

This picture of me shows that a slightly serene expression after passing the man. No desire to give it my all - just to finish. Near the end, perhaps 200m or so, there was someone utterly collapsed. "Poor sod!" I shouted as I passed.

In the aftermath I emailed the directors to ask about the water and lack of nutrition at the end. They gave me a reply I won't post, but suffice to say I think that anyone running the race should have known it was going to be a hot day, and should have slowed down to drink water properly (or at least slowed down full-stop!) One man ran with a backpack full of iced water. The poor chap who died seems, from his justgiving page, to have:

a) Been running for a charity for whom he had dedicated a substantial portion of his service.
b) Been running his first half-marathon.

I wonder if he didn't know what kind of exhaustion was due to the heat, and what kind of exhaustion was due to the natural rigors of the race? And that, thanks to his charity, he felt he simply had to finish in a 'good' time? For me, I sought no sponsors for my marathon as I did not want to run it without knowing my capabilities (i.e. in case I ran it too fast and did not finish it.) In fact, I know a lass who runs very fast (not least as that's all she does!) but has simply refused to run a marathon so far as she could run it in any less than 100% of her HM capabilities (and hence risk not finishing it at all.)

Another story concerns a chap I met in the Edinburgh marathon. He ran so fast (6-7 minute miles) for a blistering HM, yet burned out at mile 16. He finished in 6 hours. That's a SLOW walking pace for the latter part. Incredible.

By the end time of the HM, my time was slower by about 4-5 minutes compared to my time last year. I was not so bothered. I felt proud.

However, I do feel that my ankle and my running style leaves something to be desired. I even had a blister on my left foot. A week of no exercise at all has been deliberate. I hope to begin some cross-training tomorrow, and to build up to a 5k in Hull again, and the Harrogate 10k on the first weekend of the summer holidays. But, in doing so, to see if my body needs a different kind of training.