No-Show at the Brighton Half Marathon
24th February, 2013
As you can tell by the title of this piece, there's not going to be a breathless, exciting account of how the promenade was conquered, the wind subdued and the kiss-me-quick hat and candy floss donned and scoffed respectively.
While I had every intention of running this and had even booked a non-refundable hotel room to prove it, the race feel foul of a schoolboy error. The week before I'd decided on a long 20-miler and as the Sunday was one of the most unpleasant in 2013 so far I decided to run long on the treadmill. Because I've been getting persistent nerve problems across the top of my left foot and around the peroneal tendon I've been going without socks a lot to relieve the pressure on said nerves - seems to help. If you combine no socks, wet weather while running to the gym and then 17 miles on the treaddie you get blisters and I picked up some right beauties. Blisters in places I have never had blisters before.
I lost several days worth of training to it and while the pain receded it was only bearable for the slower runs when not pushing off quite so far forward on the foot so the race got dropped.
Instead, as slow stuff was ok I put in another 20, not on the treadmill this time but along the Thames Path which had finally started to dry out from the prolonged soaking that has rendered it all but impassible for long periods.
I run a stretch from Eton Wick up to the bridge over the Thames past Cookham - which is exactly 10 miles - then return the same way. It's almost all off-road and most of it is very soft underfoot. It's also broken up into sections which I find helps - the bit to the Maidenhead bridge is one; then the path to Cookham and lastly the final stretch of a mile and a half or so to the bridge. All feel different and it helps break it up.
Sorry to have missed Brighton but the time wasn't wasted.
While I had every intention of running this and had even booked a non-refundable hotel room to prove it, the race feel foul of a schoolboy error. The week before I'd decided on a long 20-miler and as the Sunday was one of the most unpleasant in 2013 so far I decided to run long on the treadmill. Because I've been getting persistent nerve problems across the top of my left foot and around the peroneal tendon I've been going without socks a lot to relieve the pressure on said nerves - seems to help. If you combine no socks, wet weather while running to the gym and then 17 miles on the treaddie you get blisters and I picked up some right beauties. Blisters in places I have never had blisters before.
I lost several days worth of training to it and while the pain receded it was only bearable for the slower runs when not pushing off quite so far forward on the foot so the race got dropped.
Instead, as slow stuff was ok I put in another 20, not on the treadmill this time but along the Thames Path which had finally started to dry out from the prolonged soaking that has rendered it all but impassible for long periods.
I run a stretch from Eton Wick up to the bridge over the Thames past Cookham - which is exactly 10 miles - then return the same way. It's almost all off-road and most of it is very soft underfoot. It's also broken up into sections which I find helps - the bit to the Maidenhead bridge is one; then the path to Cookham and lastly the final stretch of a mile and a half or so to the bridge. All feel different and it helps break it up.
Sorry to have missed Brighton but the time wasn't wasted.
