Week 10, 99 min half: Ouch - Lazy Girl Running

This week started out crappy, and didn’t get much better until Sunday. I knew it would be a rubbish week.

It was supposed to be ‘peak week’ but it also coincided with hospital appointments and tests (nothing running related and not-pregnant, which is what most people assume once you’re past 30).

So I did what running I could, when I could. No race build-up goes 100% without an off week, it was just annoying that my off week should have been my peak training week.

But then my leg started hurting too. NOT NOW LEG!

It was a niggle I had after Cambridge half, so I hoped I could get on top of it with a trip to the physio who sorted me out last time.

I ran my tempo run on the treadmill on Thursday then hobbled home before cycling over to her office. She stuck some pins in it and told me to take a day off before a short test run on Saturday. If that went ok I could do a longer run on Sunday.

The test run went ok, not perfect but my leg didn’t fall off so it was a win. I hadn’t told my physio that the ‘longer run’ I’d planned for Sunday was Ealing Half. Being sensible I knew I should probably skip the race and run 6 miles nice and easy. But I wasn’t sensible. I wanted to run the half.

On Sunday I headed over to Ealing with Phil and a leg that felt a lot better than it had all week. We set off with the 2:10 pacers, agreeing to take it nice and easy.

I first moved to London 10 years ago and lived in Ealing pretty close to where the race starts. There wasn’t a half marathon in Ealing then, and as we ran past my old flat Phil reminded me “You wouldn’t have noticed if there was a race here back then, you’d have still been in bed at this time”. It’s true.

We finished the race together, just over two hours after we’d started. And magically, my leg felt ok. Not 100%, but good enough. So here’s hoping the 99 min half is back on. Just two weeks to go now!