Stop start & stop again

Following my blog is like reading a doctors report!  Every blog seems to have something new to report on the medical front!
Having got over prostate op as you know, I headed for the hills a week ago and ran down Ben Vorlich. The following day ran 24km.  It took me 4 days to properly recover and I needed two massages that week and had to roll my legs.  It's always the same with the first hill run of the year and I should be fine now they have been reminded that this is what we do almost every week - muscle memory!
I was a bit nervous that wrecking my legs a week before my 1st race was not a good idea so turned up with Beth at a dreich (Scottish word for gloomy, low cloud, light rain) Glentress Mountain Bike Centre not knowing how my body would respond.  Until I properly surveyed the course a few nights before, I thought it was a road race - couldn't have been further from the truth but I came prepared.  With 750m of ascent it wasn't going to be a fast one but a good test of my fitness.  Beth & I agreed we'd run separately and I pushed on near to the front to try and avoid the bottle neck on the hill.  We'd met our club mate Emma and the thought crossed my mind that although I was giving her 30 years I still wanted to finish ahead of her.  My coach did say to me this is a training run and don't do anything heroic!  I wish I'd listened.
The first 3km is up hill and after 1km Emma passed me.  I tried as hard as I could to keep her in sight but after 2km I started walking the steep parts.  Glentress is beautiful, when you're not blowing out your arse, and I knew my best chance of making up time for my walking was on the downhills where I was over taking most people.  The technical sections were treacherous with the wet conditions and I was kicking myself for not having taken my poles.  Having said that, I didn't see anyone with poles although they were allowed.  At 11 km just as I reached the top I saw Emma slowing down.  I went to pass someone in the soft mud and then found myself face down in it.  I picked myself up, laughed and  said hi to Emma as I passed her.  Now I was in my comfort zone and flew down the hills, last weeks run had my legs in great shape.  The forest we ran through was stunning and because of the weather, we didn't have great views but you really had to concentrate on the trail.
With 3km to go I came out a clearing and was passing a runner and a marshal when my foot caught a rock - BANG.  Down like a "sack of tatties".  Banged my knee, elbow and head.  Fortunately I was wearing running tights so didn't see the damage.  If I'd have had my poles I might have avoided the fall. The marshal and the runner helped me up and I was offered medical attention - no chance, I knew Emma would be behind me and also that getting treatment might end my race.  The adrenalin had kicked in so I ran on fast as it was a nice forest trail heading down to the finish line.  With 1 km my hammy started to tighten up and I had to shorten my steps as it was close to going.  I crossed the line in 2hrs 21 mins which sound dreadful for a half marathon having done 1:47 in October but this wasn't a road half marathon.  It was tough as hell.
I headed off to the medical tent and when I took my tights off the damage was worse than I thought.  They cleaned me up but then sent me to A&E for stitches.  Emma finished 5 mins behind and Beth 5 mins behind Emma.  We all really enjoyed the course but my knee injury was really starting to hurt so we headed to Hairmyres A&E.
After all the bad press about waits at A&E I was so impressed with Hairmyres.  I had hardly sat down before I was triaged and in 90 minutes out with my knee stitched - thanks to the wonderful staff for the amazing service.
This week, walking has not been easy as I haven't been able to bend my leg.  That wasn't helped by a day in London sitting on a plane and walking up and down stairs on the underground.  My body has felt like it's been in a car crash but I can now bend my knee.  There has been no puss and on Tuesday the stitches come out.  There's a lot of bruising and swelling so I'll need to break myself in easy as the Manchester Marathon (road race!) is in 7 weeks time! 
Today I managed a short yoga session using a cushion under my knee and it was good to get my body moving.  Definitely more yoga and gym work so I can start to prepare my body for Manchester.  I'll be doing a lot of legs and glute work to stop me from dragging my feet when I'm tired.
Anyway, normal service will be resumed shortly and the mountains are calling.  Glentress was a good test of "how bad do you want it" as it would have been much easier to get the medical attention and pull out the race.  I'm glad I persevered otherwise I would have regretted that decision.