Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Things to do on Sunday when you're bored

I'd been a very naughty boy and not run for a week since the Croydon 10k last Sunday, mostly for lame reasons like "my legs still hurt a bit". This wouldn't normally worry me much, but given that I'm doing my first half-marathon - the Shakespeare Half-Marathon - in a couple of weeks the lack of running was beginning to worry me rather. I don't really care what my time is at Stratford as long as it's not silly, so as long as I can get round the distance I'll be happy.

I hadn't yet run 21km in training, though, so in a moment of impetuous impulse yesterday my brain told me that it would be fun to go out for a nice long run. Then, I figured, I'd be able to say "Oh, I've run the distance, so I can finish the race. Nothing to it." with a reasonable amount of confidence. Conveniently, the distance from my flat to Richmond Bridge, across the river and back down the other side is almost exactly a half-marathon - 21.2km according to the GPS. It's also a fairly nice route, although the Thames-side path between Teddington Lock and Richmond gets fairly rocky and hard on the feet at times.

Going out and doing this after no running at all for a week was a little foolhardy, and I had visions of the Wise Old Men Of Running standing waggling their fingers at me like a less impressed version of Yoda and Ben Kenobi at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Long runs, they say, should be counterbalanced with shorter runs and speedwork rather than launched into after a week of nothing. That, they say (and they're right), is a Serious Recipe For Injury.

But I did it anyway. It was a fairly fun run, though given the warm weather and the utter lack of preparation I began to flag a bit towards the end. The important bit was that I managed to hold my target pace for the run - a fairly leisurely 5 min/km - for the duration, finishing almost bang on 1:45. This was made a bit more fun by the fact that the footpath was flooded at about the 9km mark. Being very stupid I just waded through and squelched along for the next 12km, which got me some strange looks from passers-by in the genteel suburbs of Richmond and Teddington. Next time I shall attempt to be intelligent and consider taking my shoes off before wading through a stream that comes most of the way to my knees - running with soaking wet feet is a great way to get blisters.

The gods of running have been angered by my impetuosity and have afflicted me with sore legs today. They should clear up soon. I hope so, anyway.

Posted by mpk at April 11, 2005 9:35 PM