Everything Is Strained

So, how are all my injuries? I’m about to find out by running the Uttoxeter Half Marathon.

Most of my original ills have gone away, so naturally I have a new one which I think is a thigh strain. This gets even more strained when they send us up a hill immediately after the start.

In fact, this is a course with very little flat in it. Although, had I not been pre-injured I wouldn’t have worried unduly about the terrain, it was nothing too nasty. Everyone said to fear the big one between miles six and seven which also implied it was a mile long but it wasn’t. It was challenging although not horrendous.

My biggest problems were the downhills. I’m not good a downhills generally and some of the ones here were evil. Whilst everyone else was rejoicing at the last mile being ‘all downhill’ I was cursing it.

I maintain a decent eight minute mile pace for the first half of the race before it deteriorates sharply thereafter. I finish feeling shattered. How I’ll feel when that is the dessert course after a swim and a bike I’m not sure. My finish time of 1:51 is well outside my 1:45 target.

The race started and finished at Uttoxeter Racecourse, which meant the facilities were pretty good as apparently was the cake stall. T-shirts were picked up, unconventionally, before the start and drinks were in cups. This I would normally have objected to but it gave me chance to have a breather as I stopped at each one.

My parents have come to support, brought out possibly by the warm weather which isn’t ideal for running. We adjourn for a pint in a pub called the Dapple Grey afterwards. A rarity for a pub these days, and especially for a Marstons, was that they had no beers below 4.5%. They were serving Pedigree 4.5%, Old Empire 5.7%, and Snecklifter 5.1%. They must have known I was coming.

L and I are both celebrating two birthdays these days, just like the Queen. Tonight’s its L’s unofficial birthday ahead of her real one on Thursday. We have a few beers in the Falcon. Tuck mainly but we also try their 6% Big Ben mild. Then we go to the new Caribbean restaurant Turtle Bay in the Cornerhouse complex.

 

They are a growing chain and it is madly busy for a Sunday night. Well for any night actually. We have to go on a waiting list for a table and we are amazed when we get one, as it’s possibly the most disorganised place we’ve ever seen. I was convinced we’d be under or overcharged but amazingly they kept track of things. Somehow.

The food was excellent and I had my first ever pint of Red Stripe, which was really disgusting. They did have a bottle beer that was much more palatable and some nice rum too...

(Sunday 4^th May)