I have been very quite on the blog over the past few months - there has been a reason. From about last September I have been struggling with an abdominal muscle pain. On the pain level it would have been about 4 out of 10. It did not stop me running but there was no great enjoyment to the running. It was not so bad climbing but really effected me on the faster sections. During that time I done the Stockport 10 road race (in a pretty good time actually) and January’s "Trigger" which did not go so well but that was mainly due to dodgy navigation over Kinder. Before each of those races I knocked back three ibuprofen to ensure I got through OK. I was hoping it would go away on its own but by January no joy so I had to go to the GP in case it was a hernia. That was discounted so I got a referral to a physio that I could use my work health insurance for.
Off to the physio, who seemed very young and my initial impressions were "how long has she been qualified?". Done the initial assessment and then spent ages on the phone to one of the senior partners and they decided the actual problem was stiffness in my lower back was putting unnatural strains on the muscles in abdomen. Can't say I was totally shocked by this as I have had back issues on an off for years. I knew what this mean loads of exercises. I tried doing them at home but it is so easy to find an excuse to not do them so I ended up doing something I never expected I would do "I joined a gym!". PureGym is next door to work and I have been going each lunchtime for the past five months. I don't use the equipment very much mainly exercises on the mats. Shockingly enough it is not without enjoyment! As I improve I can get more aggressive with the exercises. I am even doing classes there now, spin, circuit training, etc. Now in June the abdominal pain is not so bad, the right hip flexor is a bit sore but that is probably related to all of the stretching.
A few weeks ago I decided the Kinder Trog would be a good target for a come-back race. In the past three weeks I have been around the entire route twice on the Pennine Thursday runs. I felt OK so I knew I was ready to do it. I ran this race twice before in 2:55 and 2:39, I though that I would probably get somewhere between those two times. It is a very low key local race so just turn up on the morning and pay the £5. It was going to be a very hot day so I was glad they did not do a kit check so I just stuck a wind proof in my bag. No messing about with this race it is straight into the lantern pike climb. Most of this climb is on a minor road which is OK when climbing. I am a very slow starter, in the DazH race last summer I was in the bottom 10 for the first couple of Kilometres but ended up just missing the top half by the end. Likewise in this I was slow but slowly started to overtake load of people on that slog up the road to the first checkpoint. The marshal at lantern pike called out my number "47", I though I was 67 but he must be right! I had not realized it but my number was a bit low so the strap of my bag had gone over the bottom bit of the number. My number was 67. The marshals at the next couple of checkpoints at Kinder Downfall and Edale cross asked my to call out my number so I unknowingly carried on the error and shouted 47. I know this route so well so I slowly picked places up as we ran the long section from lantern pike to Mill hill. The weather has been dry so the climb from Chunel Junction to the flags was pretty straight forward instead of the heavy peat that it can often be. I overtook a woman in a Buxton top around this area, I was to see a lot of her during the race as she was faster than me on the flat and down hill but I was considerably faster on the climbs. The race was going pretty well personally I though the conditions on Kinder were not too bad it was a bit higher so a slight breeze helped to keep me cool. We have been over Kinder so many times on the Pennine Thursday runs that I now know the couple of little short cuts, Sandy Heys being the main one. Despite this I made a mistake at kinder low. There were two blokes in front of me and they were drifting to the left I was saying to myself why are the going over there? The flags are to the right. Despite that I started to follow them thankfully I decided they had gone wrong before it was too late to cut back right again to join the flags. When the two lads cut across on the trod from Edale rocks to the flags stones I had actually closed the gap on them. We passed a walker who called out 69,70,71, that was interesting I know what position I am in!
We now have the calm before the storm the great descent to the Upper Sett and then "that" climb. The Buxton woman shot past me on the descent. I am just so poor on the descents now, I suppose a lot of it is loss of confident due to the injury. I was been pushed on that descent by another runner so I actually went down it a lot faster that I would have chosen to but the Buxton woman was out of sight. It would be Big Stone before I caught her again. The race was getting very difficult by this stage we had lost a lot of height now and as we went past midday the temperature got considerably warmer. It is a pig of a climb from the Sett but I have done it so many times now I am used to it. Somebody made a "Strava Segment" out of it and at the time of writing I am actually 15/68 (6:15). Today it took me 8:11 so well outside my PB! I was expecting the section from the flags to South Head to be reasonably good. Four of us had ran the entire route a couple of weeks previously and one of the lads gave his knee a bad wrench when he went down into the soft peat. The conditions has been very dry since then and so it turned out - it was pretty straight forward. I was getting very hot and thirsty by this stage, but I just had to keep a steady run going to the water station at Peep O Day. I took my time there had three full cups before I started my "Buxton Chase" up the track. One again I have done this many times so I was able to keep a steady run up it but I was not pulling her in quick enough. I would need to be well ahead of her at Big Stone to have any chance of keeping ahead of her on the long descent home.
Over the top at Big Stone and I was 3 or 4 metres behind her, a look at my watch showed I had to do 4.5 Km in 15 minutes to match my 2:39 from two years ago - no chance I thought. Lets see how how close I can get. I shot off down the lovely descent to the wall crossing and then along the track that is now in a right mess because of the Dry Stone Walling work that is going on. She was pulling away from me but then stopped by the gate where we take the left turn. I shouted out LEFT HERE THEN KEEP RIGHT BY THE LITTLE HILL and that was the last I saw of her till the finish. I was pretty tired by this stage so not going very fast but I still passed a couple of blokes in the horrible section through the trees that were in an even worse state! I eventually got home in 2:49 (70/135 starters) so I had gained a whole one place since Edale Cross!. The issue about the number was still bugging me so I made sure I took off my bag in the finishing tunnel so the recorders could see it properly and "67". Before the race I predicted I would spit my 2:39 and 2:55 and so it turned out. I found the race director and told him what happened and he thanked me as they did have double recording of number 47. It shows how easily things can go wrong. I made a mistake in positioning my number and from my understanding of the FRA rules the marshals should not have asked me to call my number they should read it themselves.
My family were there at the end as I piled into the Scout hut to start devouring the sandwiches (I got a tuna one!) and litres of cordial. My daughter came in to reprimand me for not coming out to them but my reply was the drink is in here.
I am a member of Pennine about 4 years now and we have had so many young runners join us in that time some of them had great runs finishing 20 minutes ahead of me, which is great for the club. I was actually well in the top half of all the Pennine finishers which I am well "chuffed" with! Once again a great race as 16 mile races go this would be on the easier end of the spectrum so a great introduction to somebody who wants to try out a longer fell race.
