Brighton Marathon - Best Foot Forward!

An article by Heidi    Comments Off

Have finally been given the go ahead to attempt the Brighton marathon next weekend. Ankle still pretty unhappy, swollen, sprained and hurts ALOT but am going to give it a go. This event has totally taken over my life for the last 6 months and there is no way I could even contemplate deferring and starting all over again next year.

I chose what was probably the worst winter of weather for training; ridiculous amounts of snow and ice, with rain so cold it that stung my face and gale force winds so strong along the coast road that although I was running, was not actually going forward and nearly got blown into the side of a bus.

So far I have suffered sprained ankle x 2, tendonitis, a trip to A&E, cramps, dizzyness, nausea, what felt like my major organs trying to escape through my belly button, swellings, bruising, complete exhaustion most of the time and the loss of two toenails.

Countless ibuprofen tablets, litres of lucozade and kilo’s of chocolate have been consumed, ice packs, frozen peas and arnica gel applied, painful osteopath and sports therapist appointments where I have been crunched, clicked and generally beaten up. Deep tissue massages that have been beyond painful as well as being up at the crack of dawn trying to force feed myself porridge without gagging to get the miles in.

And to top if off, I absolutely HATE running, no running bug caught, not even a glimmer of one on the horizon, (although not that surprising after my experience!) after next Sunday my trainers will be retired for ever and loafing will resume.

I am not prepared, not fit enough and unfortunately have not been unable to get as many miles and training sessions in as I planned but I am going to give it my best shot. At the end of the day I am running to raise money for The Early Birth Association - the official charity that supports the Trevor Mann Baby Unit and Princess Royal Special Care Baby Unit, where my son was treated when he was born suffering from birth asphyxia. I cannot think of a better motivator.

http://www.justgiving.com/Heidi-Crawford