Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Back in business

After a couple of weeks of tentative running every few days and being all nervous, I decided to go for my first longer (not long as in long, but long as in longer than short) run a couple of days ago to see just how out of shape I was. Amazingly, it wasn't bad at all and ended up a little short of 15km - up the Thames as far as Ham and back again in nice gentle five-minute Ks. And I could even still walk afterwards. Yay, I thought. I can still run.

As I was feeling pretty good yesterday, I thought I'd see if I could run two days in a row for the first time since October. I am allegedly running an 8-mile race on the 12th of this month, so I ran another 8km or so including a couple of hills just to check that I can still go up as well as along.
However, this triumphant return to form was kind of marred by the fact that I then managed to lose my footing quite spectacularly on a deceptively flat and dry bit of pavement in Kingston and face-planted into the ground rather hard. My right side took most of the impact, but in the end (despite having a splitting headache for a couple of minutes afterwards) it was nothing worse than a skinned shoulder and knee. Oh, and a gouge out of the back of my hand. Having taken another spill in Kingston a couple of months ago, I have concluded that I must be one of the world's clumsiest runners. Alternatively, I could just blame it on my shoes. You can blame anything on your shoes if you're creative enough.

As a result of this I now have some exciting aches and pains, particularly down my right hand side, which will make today an enforced rest day. Oh, and I also got blisters on my feet. And to cap it all, today the postman delivered my copy of what can only be called the "Hey, You're A Loser!" magazine that informed me of my failure to get an entry for next year's London Marathon (sorry, Flora London Marathon) in the ballot. This is no great loss as I was fairly likely to take a deferral to 2006 anyway (I'm in no desperate hurry to run a marathon, thanks), but it does mean I have to enter the ballot again next year and go through all that rigmarole. It's a small mercy that at least the free energy gel which was also included didn't get squashed in the post like quite a number apparently have.

So if over the next few weeks you see people wearing grey rain jackets with the LM logo on them, be nice to them - they're the ones who didn't get a ballot place and bequeathed their entry fee to the race charities. I shall wear mine next year to stand next to the course a few miles in and harangue groups of people in silly wigs who appear to be walking the entire distance.