Sunday 24 June 2018

Stiff little fingers

For those of you old enough, stiff little fingers was a punk group in the 80's.  I was more a soul man myself so they wouldn't be my idea of a fun time but I'll get back to that shortly.
This was my last big week of training and as usual I was juggling my work/life balance around it.  All the stats on my Garmin are good and my coach and I were saying how I hadn't had such a good consistent run, without injury, of training so I was really happy running into this weekend.
However I did have a night out with my best friend on Wednesday.  2 pints and a pizza was on the agenda, that was the agenda that went out the window!  Thursday was a tough day as I postponed my morning run and binned my core session.  I headed out for my run in the evening but the hills rep at the end were abandoned as my heart rate was through the roof.  Friday wasn't much better although the morning session went ahead - I was in bed for 9.30pm!
Saturday was a 3hr 10min run and up till the last minute I had no takers - then my coach stepped up and said she'd join me for the last 2 hours.  It was a fantastic run and I was trying out my new trail shoes that would work on tarmac and they passed the test.  I also checked out my new shorts and again they passed.  The total kms was 32 but with 6km to go we came across the first runners we'd seen that day.  I stepped off the trail to left them past and my foot caught an old fence post which had been cut down to 4 inches.  Then everything went into slow motion. My left knee hit he ground first.  My left hand reached out and I saw all 4 fingers bend backwards.  My face was going to be next but I managed to get my right arm down and the elbow took the hit - face saved.  Genevieve and the runners crowded round.  Come on guys I said, if you were real runners you'd have stopped my Garmin!
My hand was throbbing and I had a couple of bloody knees and a bloody elbow.  6km to go - let's do it.  The adrenaline kicked in and it was a fast finish.  Back home and got cleaned up.  Taped up the two fingers which were fatter than before and put a bandage on to support my hand which was also swelling.  Then off to lunch and a few beers with the family which was a long standing arrangement. It didn't help the now stiff little fingers!
Today was a 2 hours, 21km run with Stuart.  The temperature had risen significantly and it was a hot sweaty run on tired legs.  But it was done and now the road to the Great Glen Ultra on 7th July looks a lot easier - I've even got my race number 78!  Can't wait.
However I think the stiff little fingers may need an x-ray based on the bruising.  It just goes to show that you're only one step/trip away from a DNS or a DNF and in ultra races where you are going for say 20 hours I'll need to be extra careful.  But I've now got two days off exercise and my body is looking forward to it although it may be spent in A&E!