Not Running, Hobbling
For the past few months, I’ve been training towards running the Melbourne Marathon. Up until about a week ago, this was all going along pretty well.
Then, on my long run the Sunday before last, I felt a bit of a twinge in my lower left calf around the Achilles at about the 7km mark. My first thought was “that’s kind of annoying”, but I’d run through worse, so kept going. At about 7.5km annoyance had turned to being painful enough that I had to stop running. A few minutes of walking seemed to settle it, but trying to run brought the pain straight back. What should have been a nice long run turned into a moderately terrible hobble home.
To cut a long story short, a visit to a myotherpist, osteopath and physiotherapist all resulted in three independent opinions of compartment syndrome. To say that I was less than pleased would be understating things by a long shot.
This would not have pissed me off so badly had it not been so close to the race. Three months ago, I would have been annoyed, but probably would have shrugged it off as “one of those things”. But to happen so close to the race and after I’d done all of the really hard work and was starting to taper? That sucks.
On the positive side, my leg seems to be responding quite well to treatment, so I’m almost certain I’ll be able to make it to the start line in just under two weeks’ time. The finish line is another story altogether… plans for pacing and time have pretty much been thrown out the window, and I’m focusing on just making to the MCG.
I’m not quite sure how I’ll react if I can’t finish, though. I’ve never had to pull out of a race before, but I don’t imagine it’s a pleasant experience (quite apart from the attendant pain, etc). But I’m pretty sure that I’ll be more upset if I don’t even start, so that’s the plan for now.
