Running Chafe…

I can actually hear all of you who suffer, cringing just at the mention of this 5 letter word…  Yip I’m sure there is not 1 of you runners out there who dont’ know the discomfort that chafe causes, my own experiences being few and far between but last years Comrades did add a new level of discomfort to my day.

This article on the Runners World website is fantastic and seems to really say all there is about it – and more (if this is possible).

Check it out and let me know what your remedies are…

Leave a Comment / January 18th, 2010 / Injuries

The Winelands Marathon

This is meant to be one of the best marathons to run in the Western Cape and I was pretty excited to give it a go, especially since I missed it last year and the year before I only did the half which wasn’t really that spectacular.  So I signed up early and started picking up my training only to be plagued by a really sore ankle which with rest, didn’t seem to get any better – actually it started feeling worse.

So after a week of rest and loads of stress because now I’m missing out on valuable training time (you guys know what I’m talking about although in reality how much are you going to lose in a week – I mean really), I decided to see the physio.  Turns out I have tendinitis in my ankle from a damaged tendon called the “Runners Nuisance” – funny that!!

So it seems I’m going to have to downgrade the marathon to a half.  I’m sure there are others of you out there who have had to make the decision NOT to do a race or to do a shorter distance than what was planned,  what I want to talk about is that decision making process…

It took me days to actually concede to the fact that I may have to just do the shorter distance and although my ankle is flipping sore and this marathon isn’t for any specific reason, I still have had feelings of failure and disappointment which is really silly because as I said, its not like I NEEDED this marathon as a Comrades qualifier or anything.

Why is this such a hard decision to make?  I didn’t think I was one of those hardcore runners who do races no matter what -  and I’ve always put my body first.  Actually the feelings I had leading up to making the decision resembled those which I had when I had to pull out of a race, although not as bad but in the same vein…

Do you guys battle with the same kind of thing?  Can you put your finger on exactly what that feeling or emotion is??  I think once we can put a name to that feeling it will be easier to deal with – let me know what you think!

The type of scenery expected

Photo Credit

One Comment / November 13th, 2009 / Half-marathon, Injuries, Reluctant runner

Weird Running “Shoes”

Way back in 2008 when I had some knee trouble I visited an orthopaedic surgeon to make sure I wasn’t causing any damage in my training for the Comrades,  one of the things  he told me while he was examining me was that I should incorporate some barefoot training into my running schedule.

His reasons were quite valid I thought – when you run with shoes on you strike the ground with your heel first, when you run barefoot you strike with the ball of your foot first which causes less tension on your knees.

Of course the barefoot training never materialised, actually coming to think of it neither did the schedule, but last week a runner passed me on the road while I was driving home and he had these on.

I have seen these (called Vibram 5-Fingers) before and mentioned them on a few of the running forums I go on from time to time, but I’d never actually seen someone using them.  The theory behind these shoes follows what my knee guy had to say about training barefoot – which due to obvious reasons isn’t really the way forward when you are looking at boiling hot, tarred roads with glass, stones and various other foot piercing materials littering your way.

I’m curious to see how these rather peculiar ‘shoes’ perform…  Have any of you out there used them??

Photo Credit

One Comment / September 8th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Half-marathon, Injuries, Reluctant runner, Running, Training

Comrades Marathon Race Summary

3:34am – my alarm goes off although I’m already awake, not nervous just awake and ready for my day on the road.

4:30am – we head off to the start which is a 10 minute walk from where we spent the night.  I have to find the guys from the study I am part of so that they can fit me with the equipment I have to carry for the race, to measure my core and skin temperature.

5:15am – finally all the equipment is fitted (a few more gadgets that what I’d planned for but I didn’t care), we head to our seeding gate only to find them closed and being pointed to the back of the 12 000 strong crowd, luckily someone had forced a gap in the gate which allowed my mom and I to sneak into the space between E and F seeding (I was meant to be in F anyway).

5:20am – Chariots of Fire gets played over the crowd, everyone is silent waiting for traditional rooster crow which is followed directly by the start gun

5:30am – we are off, it takes 6 minutes to run over the start line and timing mat

10 hours and 52 minutes later, I am running through Kingsmead stadium hand in hand with my friend Craig (an old friend who was doing the Comrades for the first time and who ran with me all the way) with the biggest smile on my face and goose bumps all over my body…

This is just a quick summary, I will go into more detail tomorrow I just wanted to let everyone know that I finished – it was gruelling for sure, 89km is never NOT going to be hard but I had a great day and came off lightly with no blisters (not like last year) although there was some chafing from all the equipment I carried (just a small price to pay considering that some people are still limping 2 days later).

Chafe

3 Comments / May 26th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Injuries, Reluctant runner

20 Hours and 58 Minutes…

Ok everyone so we are within a day of the Comrades Marathon and I’m about to head off to Durban.  If you want to keep track of me you can find out here.

I (ok not me, but someone who I’ve asked) will be updating my Twitter and Facebook status with my progress.  I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have this afternoon so if I don’t manage to get online – See you at the end!!!

One Comment / May 23rd, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Fund Raising, Half-marathon, Injuries, Motivation, Reluctant runner, Running, Training

Running Paranoia…

Paranoia seems to be setting in…  Everyone in my office is sick and so far all I’ve gotten is a runny nose but with the Comrades on Sunday, I’d be devastated if I got the flu and was unable to run…

I even considered coming in to work with a surgical mask on, or asking my operations manager (who is also running so is as nervous as what I am) if I could work from home this week.

I hate this feeling…

2 Comments / May 19th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Injuries, Motivation, Reluctant runner, Running, Training

Rebuild!!

Hi everybody, as those of you who are familiar with Reluctant Runner have probably realized, the site has gone through some changes over the last few weeks while I’ve been transferring all the content to a paid server – it seems I have finally done everything I needed to do although I’m sure a few things might have fallen through the cracks, so if some links aren’t working or you get an error message on some pages please give me a shout so that I can fix it.

Another thing is that my feed URL has also changed, so if you were subscribed to my previous feed please replace it with this:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ ReluctantRunner

Hope to see all the old faces here as usual!!

Leave a Comment / January 29th, 2009 / Half-marathon, Injuries, Motivation, Reluctant runner, Running, Training