After March - 2008 Stourbridge Sumble.

Thanks for the prompt Phil. Almost every week since my last post I've thought "I really must update the blog" but the whole weight of time since my last post just got heavier and heavier. I'm sure only a couple of people will actually see this now, most having subscribed to stuff far more interesting and regular.

However, regardless of it's size, I have a duty to my audience to respond.

When I last posted, there had been no running, only training on the elliptical. I was beginning to get concerned about my ability to run my "signature race", the Stourbridge Stumble, a race I really have no real claim over, having only done it once and finished about half way down the pack. Still, it gave the blog a name and, to my embarrassment, if you search for Stourbridge Stumble in Google, I appear on the first page.

This must annoy someone.

Back in January or February, I had visited my GP and got a referral to a physio requested on the NHS. I was too shamed to use my medical insurance again for a self inflicted injury, so I just got on the list. March and April passed with no sign of an appointment and work more or less consumed me - although I did manage 3 times a week on the elliptical. The Stumble itself was scheduled for 14th June, so as May dawned, I hit the road to see if I could get some sort of form together in the 6 or so weeks to the race.

The first big change in my training is that I was to take set walk breaks whilst training to relieve the impact on my various ankle tendons. Initialy, I set out and run for 5 minutes and walked 1, quickly went up to 8 minutes and then settled at 1 mile run / 1 minute walk. In 2 weeks I was back to 4 miles and starting 2 miles run / 1 minute walk reaching 5 miles per run by the beginning of June.

Whilst training, I roped a collegue of mine, also called Andy, into doing the race. He has been running for around 8 months having been started on a get-healthy-kick by someone else we had both been working with. A group of us had been running on and off from a hotel we all used when we gathered for weekly project meetings. Andy happens to live on the edge of Stourbridge and fancied a go at entering and completig a 10K.

Meanwhile the longest I had managed to run before 14th June was 5.5 miles, so I can't say I was that well prepared, but I couldn't not run the race.

I met up with Andy and his family about 15 minutes or so before the race started and gave him as good an intro as to what to expect as I could remember. It wasn't long before we were trying to find the right position to start from - not too forward as to get our heals trodden on, nor too far back to get delayed by the few people who would be slower than us.

Then we were off, me trying to keep an easy pace at the start and ensure we didn't both burn it all up too early. Fat chance.

We covered the first mile, including a rolling hilly grass section in 8:46, about a minute faster than I had wanted, considering I knew I was going to pick up an injury. We were soon out into countryside and at a pace that allowed us to chat about stuff without too much difficulty finishing mile 2 in 9:47. The course rises up over miles 2 and 3 and the tracks are of rock and dirt, ocasionally through fields and across a golf course. Soon enough, we passed the half way marker having completed mile 3 in 9:57 and through mile 4 - the whole race meeting some people walking their dogs along a narrow country track - they weren't best pleased.

Then, having passed along a narrow downhill path with nettles on all sides we entered a bridlepath and suddenly our section of the race ground to a complete halt. A horse had been ridden out onto the bridlepath (despite the fact that about 80 runners had already just run past) and had promptly got panicked by a cohort of approaching neon clad mad people.

The lady riding had to then control the rearing horse and settle it enough to return to it's field, not particularily helped by shouts of frustration by some of the runners. Some harsh words and bad language was exchanged.

The delay here probably cost us about 2 minutes but I think my Garmin noted that we'd stopped and automatically stopped the clock, and we tried to make some of that time up, finishing mile 4 in 9:33. However, this is where things started to get unhinged for me as my right calf started cramping as we were waiting for the horse to turn around, and the increased speed only made it worse. A commented to Andy about this and then we just pushed on and I did my best to ignore the warning signals. This next section was a long uphill section, first along a muddy track in trees (last year there was a huge pool of water we had to clamber around - not this year) and then up the neverending sandy trail to the top of the course.

I kept us running and Andy just followed looking, there was no chatting now as this was the most difficult part of the course, and he later commented that if I hadn't kept running, he would have stopped and walked. I think I would have stopped and walked if Andy hadn't been there!

Finally we completed mile 5 in 10:20 and began the downhill return across the golfcourse and back into town. My calf really started burning as we went downhill and I hobbled on, somehow managing 8:44 for mile 6. As we got back to Mary Stevens Park Andy and I were shoulder to shoulder and I called to him to go for the line. I couldn't sprint this time (probably a good job) and came in 2 seconds behind Andy.

Out of 259 finshers, we placed 191 and 192 (joint with 3 others) in 59:08 and 59:10 respectively. My 59:10 beat my PB of last year, 59:36. So I'm pretty pleased with that.

As it happens, my physio appointment came through just before the race scheduled for the following week. So I took my new injured calf and sore tendons in for assessment and got some good advice, ultrasound therapy and stretches to do. My last appointment is schedued for Monday. Next year, I'll probably go get request a physio appointment again in March and I'll probably get it through in time to fix me up after the 2009 Stumble.

Having taken several more weeks off to repair my legs, I've now just about restarted running regularily in the mornings. this week, 3 x 1 miles on the local roads on Monday, on a hotel treadmill on Wednesday and planning a further 3 x 1 tomorrow from home.

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Well, having got all that off my chest, I'll try to post more regularily again. I've some Holiday photos from the English Lakes to post; it was overcast most of the time, but there are a couple of nice shots. And let you know how my autumn training goes. It'll still be with walk breaks but that's the best way I have to reduce the risk of injury, and keep me running more consistently.

Hope all is well with you.

Mr Stumble.