So ....... my midlife crisis marathon turned into a marathon in crisis a couple of weeks before the big day with a hamstring injury on one of my last 400m repeat sessions.
After resting, rolling and testing it out on a couple of short, slow runs I made the only sensible decision a runner can make in these situations, ignore it, turn up on the day and go for it!!
I went over the start line hydrated, fueled up, running at goal pace and feeling good, unfortunately that didn't last long!
The half way mark hadn't even been reached when the hamstring started nipping and niggling so I eased of the pace and changed strategy to just getting over the finish line!
At mile 20 the cramps kicked in. At one point the quad and hamstring of my left leg both went into cramp at the same time, I'd say I resembled a street performer doing some type of one legged expressive dance!!
From there to the finish it was run a bit, cramp a bit, run a bit, cramp a bit eventually crossing the line in 3hrs 28mins.
Not a London Marathon good for age time as intended but it's still another Belfast City Marathon finished, 20th in a row no less, and another one of these for the collection
👇
Leave a comment