I ACHIEVED MY SUB 2 HOUR GOAL!!!!
By 30 seconds, which in a way is even more satisfying as it was so close.
However, I've got a little story to tell with this race...there's a possibility I almost destroyed my body to achieve it. About 3 weeks before race day I started to notice just a little pain at the very top of my right leg, in my hip area. I didn't think much of it and continued with training, because I was getting to the point where I knew I had to be hitting my mileage targets in order to do well, and it really didn't seem to be much. But this then progressed by 2 weeks to go into definite twinging and aches in my hip and leg each time I was running, which went further
by 1 week to go in that it was really hurting my hip each step I took out on a run and I was struggling to even get started. This was extremely frustrating as race day approached, and I wasn't sure what the problem was as it was a gradual build up of pain levels, not a singular incident that had caused it. This is when I got tonsillitis.
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| My pal, looking thrilled that I made her sign up |
The night before race day I realised my throat had been pretty sore all day and my glands were a little flared. When I noticed I also had a temperature so I decided to take a look at my throat and discovered COMPLETELY WHITE TONSILS. Sorry if that's gross but ya know....just tryna give you the full picture. Falling into freak out mode, I started to panic a little about the morning, so I gave my mum a call (my answer in life to everything) and was under strict orders to go to bed and rest it out, under no condition was I to run. Soon course that made me really want to run.
This was followed by a sleepless night stressing over not being able to race, having been in my calendar so long, and frustration over not even being able to rest. The decision was made by 4 in the morning that there was no way I was going to miss this and I'd just have to pay the consequences with both my injury and my illness. I took 3 ibuprofen with breakfast and didn't tell my friends my gear was on under my dressing gown as they had also given me strict orders there was to be no running. Next thing you know I'm at the start line in the freezing cold, actually feeling little better than earlier and ready to go.
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| Start line! |
I have indeed payed the price, being injured now for 10 weeks and counting, but you know what, the important thing for me to remember is a reached what I was going for, and that makes me extremely proud. I managed to recover from tonsillitis after a week or so and didn't miss a day of uni in the process so to be honest, I'm gonna brag about it cause I always want to see the positive, and this was a big achievement for me. I like to think I could have shaved at least 10 minutes, given that I partially limped round and was very unprepared for that race, We'll see what the future holds when I'm all recovered <3
Lots of love, Helen xx
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