If you read my previous blog post from a few weeks ago, you’ll know I set myself a very specific target at the Sheffield Half Marathon in April…..
The short version of this story is that I failed (you could stop reading now if that’s all you wanted to know!). I was exhausted and really hurting at the end, I cried a bit, I knew I was outside my 1:40 goal, when the text came through I cried a bit more (I was completely surrounded by crowds of people but at that particular race I’d chosen to be on my own), put my medal around my neck and walked slowly and gingerly back to my car.
My initial tweet after the race was one of disappointment – “Tactically my worst race ever” was what I tweeted – but was it actually that bad?
https://twitter.com/andy5000miles/status/982935558434455552
The text conversation I had with my wife soon after I’d finished says it better than I can –
Sometimes I really do need to take a good look at myself – I’d been injured for a month, so my training schedule had gone to pot, I’ve been really busy at work, and I’m a real life person with real life stresses and strains and worries, and I’m 51, and I just ran a tough extreme hill half marathon in 1:42 – what is wrong with me?!
What I actually did do, at least initially, was what I intended to – that was, to attack the first, toughest, uphill section of the race. My thinking was simply, get up the hill inside the target time and then the rest of the race will take care of itself. I achieved the first bit, I wanted to do the first 6 miles inside 48 minutes, which is exactly what I did. Where I badly miscalculated was that, because of the lack of training relative to what I should have been doing, and because of the niggle, after 6 miles, rather than the rest of the race “taking care of itself” I was absolutely shattered both physically but also mentally. I remember running on the plateau bit at the top of the hill where after a bit of a dip and a final little climb it levels off, and thinking – right then, here we go, the rest of the race…..I had actually been with the 1:35 pacer up to three miles but had lost him on the last long hill up to mile 5, but I knew that I was still way ahead of the 1:40 pacer so I was still well on track. But I was totally running on empty, I’d spent all my emotional and mental energy getting up that hill, and even though I was ahead of the game, and it was all literally downhill, I felt like I had nothing left.
In addition to that, I was starting to feel a numb pain in my calf right at the top, so that started to get in my head too. At about 7 miles you start to drop out of the Peak district and hit the first village, and out of the corner of my eye I clocked Jessica Ennis-Hill is a woolly hat – don’t ask me how I spotted her, but it was definitely her! I’m a sucker for a selfie but at this point I was still ahead of the 1:40 pacers, although I’d seen them gaining on me, but I was on a downhill stretch, going for a lifetime best, so I had to let the possible selfie go – unfortunately at around mile 8 I was passed by the 1:40 guys, and I had nothing in the tank to keep up with them, in fact they left me pretty quickly. At that point I expected my body to pack up completely, but for the next 5 miles I didn’t really get much slower – I knew I wasn’t going to go sub 1:40 but my leg didn’t feel to be getting any worse, and with the crowds cheering everyone on, I just basically kept pounding away to eventually finish in 1:42:21. It was only when I stopped that I realised that my leg did actually hurt, quite a bit actually, and I was emotionally exhausted too, and on my own. 
It was tactically disappointing, I know in retrospect that I tried too hard at the start (I bet I’m the only person EVER to run that race in 1:42 and not do a negative split – my first half of the race, all uphill, was quicker than my second half) – but I also know that I need to get a sense of perspective – I finished in the top 15% of all runners, I’m 51 years old, I’d been injured, and I’d had a really good go at it.
As is usual after a maximum effort race, I struggled to walk for a couple of days with what I call general stiffness (don’t know whether this is a medically recognised term but that’s what I call it!) – but then this was replaced with a more serious pain in the leg that had been causing me the problem, when the general stiffness wore off this didn’t, so after 2,500 miles, I finally booked in to see a physio, for two reasons (a) to see what, if anything, was wrong and how long it would take to get better and (b) could I run while it was getting better……
The answer to (a) was that after poking around for about 40 minutes we finally isolated a distal hamstring tendinopathy (which is a fancy way of saying I have a very small tear at the very bottom of my hamstring, around the back of the knee). He reckoned that I had had two totally separate injuries, and that the calf thing I was complaining about had healed naturally, and that I had done the small tear during the Sheffield half, probably towards the end of the uphill section. It could take 2 – 3 months to heal completely – and question (b) he said it was ok to run if I stayed on the level, i.e. no big hills, and pace wise ran well within myself, and also he suggested a shorter stride length if possible so as not to stretch it. I also got some exercises and stretches to help it, plus I was told to ice it after runs.
Fast forward to now, as I’m writing this, and I’ve stuck to the programme pretty well – what the physio didn’t say (because I avoided asking the question) was how much running I was ok to do – he said flat and slower than normal, but I didn’t mention the Leeds Half marathon I had a place for, as I didn’t want to hear him recommend I didn’t do that one. If you don’t ask…….
So I kept on the flat (I worked out a 6 miles run from my house which was almost entirely flat, and I got myself pretty good at pacing exactly 9 minute miles) and I rested and I iced it and I did the exercises. Then I had an idea – there was no way I was going to attack a PB at Leeds, I wasn’t in the right shape to do that and was still recovering from the injury – if I was determined to do the race anyway (I’d paid for the ticket as part of what’s called the “White Rose treble” so I didn’t want to not get the medal!) why not try something a bit different?
I’ve never considered fancy dress or a costume of any type before, but I was overtaken by Chewbacca and Princess Leia at Sheffield and I could tell how much love they were getting from the crowd, and that gave me an idea.
We’re all big “pixar” fans in our house, and on a trip to the States about 9 years ago I’d picked up a huge Mr Incredible American football shirt in the Disney outlet store for a few dollars. On every trip to Disney we made since then, when I’ve worn it I’ve had offers from people wanting to buy it there and then (one woman offered me $100 cash and to take me to the store to buy me a shirt to wear to replace it – said her husband would love it) – it’s designed to be worn with the American football shoulder pads underneath so it is really big, and stretchy too.
We sewed one of my Kirkwood Hospice shirts into the back of it so it looked like this – 
and with the help of my wife and Mother-in-Law we designed our very own fat suit style padding using two white tee shirts sewn together and a load of build-a-bear type stuffing (you can buy anything on the internet!) so the whole thing looked like this –
So, long story short, I did the Leeds Half marathon looking like this!
I was cheered the whole way round, the atmosphere was great, and although the costume was really hot I only struggled on the last section down Kirkstall Road from about the 10 mile point as the sun came out and there is no shade, plus I had gone off far faster than I expected to be physically able to so I did slow down quite a bit over the last couple of miles – I finished in just under 1 hour 52 minutes, and when I looked at the results later I worked out that I still finished inside the top 25% – I have really big plans for this costume in the year 2021, but more about that later.
In the next post I’ll update you on exactly where I am in the 5,000 mile challenge. In the meantime, happy running!
Andy
The Kirkwood 5000 - 5000 miles in 5 years 