Well, where do I begin. My last blog was back in December when I was super excited to be getting my new orthotics to help with my chronic achillies tendinopathy and I had everything crossed that they would help so I could start training for Brighton Marathon 2015 at the beginning of January.
I was doing minimal running until I got my orthotics and that included a parkrun on a Saturday. Just before Christmas, I was running around the first field of Frimley Lodge parkrun with my boyfriend Ben and the next thing I know I am on the floor, in tears due to the pain in my left ankle. Ben and Duncan carried me back to the benches as I couldn't walk and took a closer look at my ankle. My ankle bone (lateral malleolus) had swollen up and it looked like I had a golf ball attached to my ankle. Everyone was telling me, you've just sprained it, you'll be fine. I was on crutches for a couple of days until I had to go back to work and then had to weight bear on my ankle as treating clients whilst on crutches proved to be very difficult.
With being out for so long with chronic Achilles tendinopathy I was eager to get back running, so I tried running after 3 weeks after doing some cross training. Well... that was a bad decision. I couldn't walk without pain in my left ankle and foot, it was constantly swollen and bruised. 5 weeks later and after dropping a 10kg weight on my toes at the gym, Ben forced me to go to A&E at 11pm on a Saturday night as I was getting constant sharp pains into my ankle whilst laying in bed. The x-ray came back NAD (nothing adnormal detected) but I wasn't convinced. Frustrated and in pain, I went to see my best friend Lucy who is an Osteopath and well it is probably easier to list what wasn't wrong with my ankle and foot. We both agreed there was a stress fracture due to pain I was in but where, we don't know. Myself, Lucy and Ben agreed I would have 1 month off running which would take me to the 12th March, exactly one month before Brighton Marathon!!!!
I had daily massages on my ankle as well as laser therapy, ultrasound and acupuncture. Slowly the month passed, admittedly I was still cross training but no running but it was time to start running again. I started off with 10 minutes of running on the treadmill very slowly and thankfully there was no significant pain just a few niggles. I went to Portugal for 5 days to work on a warm weather training camp and managed to run most days building up to 4-5 miles by my last day there. I ran Fleet 1/2 Marathon with Ben and we ran 1.56. We were over the moon but knew I still had a long way to go to run a marathon! The only pain I was getting was in my big toe (1st Metatarsal Joint) if I wore the Asics Cummulus trainers I was running in. So off I went to Alton Sports and tried on so many pairs of trainers to see if I could find a pair that didn't cause me pain. I was very unsure on buying a pair of Adidas Boost trainers but they were they only ones that didn't aggravate my big toe.
10 days before Brighton we ran the Maidenhead 10. For Ben, it wasn't his best race due to issues he was having with his calfs and tibilas anterior muscle and he couldn't finish it due to the pain he was in. I carried on and ran 86 minutes. Thankfully I had no pain in my ankle or big toe and my confidence was slowly coming back.
The week going into Brighton, we were still unsure whether both of us would be able to complete it. Ben wasn't sure what trainers to run in and we couldn't decide what pace to run! We were both treating each other to help get us to the start line. Friday came and we headed down to the Brighton Marathon Expo with our running friends. We collected our numbers and then started the necessary carb loading!!!!
Sunday morning came around very quickly. We were up at 5am to head to Brighton. The sun was shinning but there was quite a breeze. Myself and Ben agreed on 4hr15 pace so it worked out about 9.20ish/mile pace. With 30 minutes to go, Ben was still undecided what trainers to where! We walked down towards the start line and made sure we where towards the back of our pen so the faster people could go in front of us. We started off and within a mile I was regretting wearing a base layer top. Our pacing was going nicely until about 10 miles. I managed to go over on my left ankle and Ben was starting to struggle with his hips being tight. Running through half way and out towards the 14/18 miles, the support from the crowds was overwhelming! We could constantly hear 'Go on Abby and Ben'!! I saw my family and grabbed some paracetamol to see if that would help Ben but it turned out he just needed to stretch every couple of miles. As everyone says the toughest part of the course is out towards the power station and they aren't lying. We both struggled and Ben wanted to walk but I knew he wanted to watch the Masters Golf when we got home so I may have gently threatened....'If you walk, your not allowed to watch the Masters'. It worked a treat. Our place had slowed significantly but we took on a number of gels, shot blocks and as much water as we could and headed back towards the sea front for the last 3 miles. For those that who ran Brighton Marathon this year, I am sure you will agree the support from the crowds in the last 3 miles was overwhelming. For the last couple of miles, our friend Darren ran alongside us, supporting and encouraging us. My family, our personal trainer (Dave) and his girlfriend (Jen) ran with us for the last mile but we lost them at 26 miles as we headed towards the finish. Ben kept asking 'Where is the finish'! Finally we could see it, and pushed on towards the finish line. We finished in 4.39.31!!
That's when the tears occurred! I saw my friend Lee who I had met on the training camp, he gave us our medals and took our picture. The walk back to meet our family and friends was so painful and took us a while! Again there was a lot of tears when we met them and lots of pictures to cherish the moment.
My biggest thank you goes to Ben for putting up with me through my injury, supporting me, treating me and for running the Marathon with me, I couldn't have done any of it without you.
There were so many of my friends who completed Brighton and/or London Marathons and you all did amazing. Completing a marathon isn't easy!
Lots of Love
Abby xx
