I was very nervous at the start of the month due to the Thanet marathon as this was a real indicator of how I would cope with the 10 marathons in 2010. As I put in my marathon update, running 26.2 miles is tough. I did struggle towards the end and my legs were quite painful. However, I was back out running on the Tuesday and Wednesday and, although I was slower than previous weeks, I had no real pain or lack of willingness to run. This is a good indicator that I am doing something right with my training.
This positive result increased my confidence and I was happy to push my training towards the next set of training races that I had planned in October, those being the Sittingbourne 10-mile and Maidstone half-marathon.
However, while being on holiday I have managed to suffer a serious injury. While taking part in my weekly horse riding lesson, my “trusted steed”, Kristie, managed to spook himself as I was engaging in a change of pace from trot to canter. In hindsight if I had bailed at that point my injuries wuld not have been so severe, but thinking that I was better than I was I tried to maintain my position on the horse. As far as I remember, I was close to regaining my balance, and position on the horse before Kristie stopped and I kept going. The fall was from around 5 feet up and was at a reasonable velocity, landing on the soft riding school sand which has caused cracked or broken ribs and a very sore back. Due to medical advice, I have to stop all forms of exercise for 4 weeks.
The only upside of this is that it was not caused by my training or running so despite running close to 300 miles in training (including races), I have not had any running related injuries. The paramedics and doctors also had to check if I was an athlete due to my resting heart rate of 55bpm, despite the trauma, which is also a good sign that my body has adapted as a result of all the training.
