The London Marathon is an incredible race. It is the largest fundraising event in the world, and has garnered almost 500 million pounds since its inception. It was the perfect corner stone to be my final and tenth marathon before heading into big race retirement. I was expecting no PR's just a comfortable 8:30/9 minute per mile last hurrah amongst the amazing sights and sounds of London. 20 family and friends waiting at the finish line, the first time my parents would see me race and a great opportunity to raise money for King's College Hospital.
Five weeks ago things were going gloriously well, coming off another 50 mile week and a strong 20 miler I headed into the next training session finally feeling my legs were adapting. The epic fail of the next long run and the hip pain in the left leg has done nothing to change over a 4 week period. I have had multiple soft tissue consults with the sports med chiro, and you know its bad when Rudy refuses to charge you for the last visit and just gives you a sympathetic smile. He has saved me for Boston for the last two years but even he is stumped this time. The ortho ruled out bone spurs or stress fractures, general opinion is it might be spine, it might be glute, but it involves nerve impingement of some kind and it doesn't allow running.
I cross trained hard, doubling up on spin classes, getting hot yoga in for strength and flexibility, then when nothing changed I tried total rest. Boy was that awful, a whole week of not sleeping, feeling sluggish, no appetite, just not myself. Still no change.
With any other race you just slink away and ignore social media and results on race day, go for a long walk and forget about it. This time I have an incredible group of supporters and donors to acknowledge so I will be there at the charity reception surrounded by accomplished, happy runners, and trying to put a brave face on it. For a crazy day or two I was seriously considering walking the course along with some of the slower charity runners. 7 hours didn't seem too much of a problem. A day or two of long walks has made me reconsider that idea, after an hour the hip starts to throb ominously and the lower leg gets shooting pains in the side.
I guess my body decided on an early retirement package instead! I joked at the start that my 50 plus training plan should really just include large sheets of bubble wrap and I would cocoon in that for three months, emerge uninjured and pull off a better marathon than if I trained. How true that was. As of today I have officially given up on being able to run or walk this incredible race, so the best I can do is grab some cow bells and get excited for the elites and all the other amazing folks who will be running a week on Sunday and be thankful I raised 92% of my target for this great hospital. I am sure this will heal on its own, just not on my time line, and I will be so excited to get out there again, if it means no more big marathons, just running those trails with Poppy will be treat enough.
I am happy we raised so much money for a really great cause. I will look back on that training block and the fun I had with Shawna as a truly wonderful time, and try and soak up the excitement of other runners in London without feeling sorry for myself. Thank you, thank you, to everyone who encouraged, donated, and gave me support for this one, its been a journey!
