It was a 5 mile race starting by the station and finishing in some park errr 5 miles away. I had good warm up jogging around the car park for half an hour, doing some stretches mainly for my ankles and calf's, the start filled up quite quickly and I think there must have been about 700 doing the race, 455 men not sure about the women but there were plenty of them, club runners, plodders like me and one bloke dressed as flash
The whistle went and the timer on the land rover started, i saw it get to 3 seconds and that as the last i saw of it as the leaders set off so fast. A slight incline to the Bridge and before I knew it we were over the Mersey, I settled into a comfortable pace, I'd forgotten to charge my Garmin so used my phone to record my route and pace etc, as I'd started Nike+ on my iphone my embarrassing music kicked in and I couldn't turn it off, other runners avoided me as sixties music and classical stuff belted out a slow rhythm not conducive with a faster pace, anyway it kept me going and before I knew it the first mile marker was in sight, we had already passed Eddie Stobart's depot at Widnes and gone through a dismal industrial estate, the route was very flat with no ups or downs apart from the Bridge itself. The scenery was quite boring, a few houses but mainly industrial areas, as we approached the 2 mile marker I started to feel my Achilles getting stiffer, I'm always stiff, I didn't feel I was running fast but slowed down slightly to see if it eased a little, it didn't, so I just carried on and the pain got worse, a lot worse. At mile 3 I'd say I was almost in agony and by mile 4 all I could think was just get to the finish line, we hit the countryside briefly and I tried to look round at something nice to see but failed, the Runcorn area seems more devoid of interest than Northwich does. People I had overtaken started to overtake me back, I kept going, kept leaning forward and gritting my teeth, in other runs I had taken part in I always had a sprint finish, this one was different, the pain was bad in my Achilles and I just couldn't sprint, I did put maximum effort in, maybe it was lack of training and not the pain but I got to the line and breathed a huge sigh of relief but the pain didn't stop, I just wanted to get on the bus to get back to my van and put some freeze gel on the Achilles, I was handed a bottle of water, looked around but couldn't see anyone wearing a medal, what a let down, all that pain for nothing.
I got on the bus and sat waiting in the heat, my face was burning, eventually the bus headed back to the start, I got out of my seat and could hardly walk, I managed to get back to my van and was in so much pain I forgot to put anything on my Achilles. I just drank more water and set off back home where I iced it.
I had finished the race in a time I am more than happy with 46 Min's and 1 second, a pace of 9.13 a mile, considering I was in so much pain I think I did very well and deserved a medal
So seeing as I was in so much pain I decided to see a sports injury specialist or just a physio with big prices as they should be known. Anyway she said I had been doing the worst thing possible, resting my ankle, so she has prescribed me 1 exercise and 1 stretch for me to do for the next few weeks. She also told me what I had also been fearing and that is me having to lose money by cancelling 2 runs Ive already booked in to do, the Lymm 10k and the Chester half marathon.
So no running for the foreseeable future, just walking uphill which is supposed to be best for me and plenty of stretching and exercising the Achilles 3 times a day, I can do that and hopefully strengthen it enough to be able to run the BUPA Manchester 10k on May 26th.
OH and by the way I beat The Flash so that makes me superhuman !!!!
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