So if you happen to have been friends with me on Facebook or
followed me on Instagram you’ll be aware that over the last couple of years in particular
I’ve been doing a fair bit of running. I’ve always run a bit here and there and
when I started travelling a lot for work a couple of years ago, started running
more consistently to offset the travel food if nothing else.
I found that it helped with balancing out the stress of work
as well, breaking up the day so that it was more than go to work, go to hotel,
eat, sleep, repeat. It meant that I saw more of the places that I was visiting
too. I never really had much of an aim
other than where I would get involved in the Annual City to Bay fun run in Adelaide.
At 12kms long, I’d always wanted to achieve a sub 60 minute time. 2011 was my
first attempt after returning from Canada and I ran it in 63:37 minutes. The
following year I bought my first Garmin device so that I could track speed and
train and take it a bit more seriously. I ran 12kms in pretty much exactly 60
minutes, but the total distance I’d run was 12.2km because let’s face it, there’s
lots of dodging around in a big event and the distances aren’t quite that
precise. That left my time as 60:46. I’d missed it by 46 seconds.2013 proved to
be the year though. I finally nailed the goal it! 59:15! 45 seconds to spare.
In 2014 Thomas ran with me and I wasn’t prepared (neither
was he) so we only did the 6km version of the event. The next two years
coincided with soccer cup finals that I was involved in and so I didn’t run. In
2017 I had my narrowest ever miss on the 60 mins. Despite the fact that I’d
been doing a lot of running, I finished in a time of 60:04 minutes, missing by
just 4 seconds the chance to have a sub 60 bib for the following year.
Something else happened in the last couple of years though.
I ran further. In 2016 during a trip to Perth I ran 15km one night just to run further
than I ever had before. Then later that year in Melbourne on a night of possible
insanity I ran my first ever half marathon distance. That fed my desire to run
that far during an actual event. In 2016 I did that in Adelaide during the Adelaide
marathon festival. I wasn’t sure what time would be achievable and just went
out and ran it, amazing myself when I turned in a time of 1:44:03 meaning I’d
run sub 5 minute kilometres for the whole race!
In 2017 I backed that up and decided to run again, but
injured myself playing soccer the day before the event. When I walked off the soccer
field I didn’t think I’d be able to. After hosting the team and indulging in
more red wine than I should have I decided to see how things went and totally
expected to pull out after 2kms. Once I again I surpassed expectations and not
only finished, but did so in a time of 1:49:31.
At the end of the 2017 soccer season I tore my hamstring
off the bone and wondered if I’d even be able to run. I spent the summer in
the gym building strength in the remaining muscles, working toward the goal of
at least running and at best, actually managing to play soccer again.
So when the marathon festival rolled around again this year
I decided to prove to myself once again that I could go the distance, that I’d
built things back up to the point that I could do it. I ran into my physio a
week before the event and announced excitedly that I’d signed up and was going
to run it. I was expecting him to be excited for me and be pleased with being
able to do it, but that wasn’t quite the reaction that I received. I’m pretty
sure that although he didn’t outright say it, he thought it was too early for
me to be trying the distance given I’d only run a single 15km distance all year.
I ran it in 1:46:48, once again surpassing all my expectations!
This year’s City to Bay saw the introduction of the half
marathon event for the first time and so I gave up chasing the sub 60 time and
decided to be part of that event for the first time. I started with dreams of a
PB, but in the end couldn’t find it in the back third of the run, but was very
happy with a finish time of 1:46:23.
After that, I finished out the soccer season, destroyed a
groin, retired from our competitive teams (I’ll write about that one day) and decided
to just run.
As the year has worn on though I’ve struggled to maintain
momentum. I’ve felt that my runs have been slowing down and I was starting to
lose the will to push myself through to 10kms which had become my standard run length.
On top of that my feet were starting to give me hell. They’d
been hurting all year after running and soccer and I’d put it down to bruising
of the heel. But lately it was getting to the point that it was way more painful
than it should have been just to stand up in the morning and my feet would ache
if I sat for too long, resulting in me hobbling about like a senior citizen. But
I’d set a goal for myself to run at least 1200kms this year and I was at 1100
at the end of November. I just needed to run 100kms more to achieve the goal. I
gave it one more go, but the outcome wasn’t good. I was barely able to walk the
following day.
I finally went to a doctor about it two weeks ago and was
diagnosed with Planter
Faciatis. I’ve been told not to run.
I’d been thinking for a while as my will to run longer waned
and the pain increased, that at 48 years old, the days of cracking PBs were
probably behind me. I have to say though that being told not to run wasn’t the
way I wanted to give up on such things. I’d been thinking that perhaps in my 50th
year I’d run a full marathon now that I’m not committing to the competitive level
of soccer I’ve been playing at. But now I’ve been told no running.
I’m in a new job and I’m travelling to new (and familiar)
places where there’s some great spots for running and instead I’m reduced to a
stroll. It’s a very strange frustration because let’s face it, running 10kms
isn’t exactly enjoyable. It’s more a sense of achievement after the fact rather
than enjoying the effort of getting there.
So now I walk and wait. Some day I’ll probably even run
again, but until then, it might be time to pull out the bike and find some
goggles!
