Racing back to fitness at Parliament Hill – 30 January
2010
David Long
reports on his excellent WAC race debut
Parliament Hill was
certainly a place not to forget. The sun was shining; the mud was
glistening and the hill, well, looked big. The first race was the Under
15 boys, which I was participating in. Being my first time running in
the South of Englands, I didn’t know what to expect. This was certainly
a longer race than many of the others I had done and so it was a new
experience. The ground was icy in places then a foot deep of mud in
others.
|
The WAC base at Parliament Hill |
After warming up, putting
on all necessary equipment and preparing myself, we went down to the
bottom of the hill for the start of the race. We first completed a ‘chip
check’ for time recording purposes, another new experience. The
atmosphere before the start was tense. The line was spread out along a
wide stretch of ground. There were many people of different sizes,
statures and height. Some looked like they were about to hit you with
aggression, others looked as feeble as a fly, even Jack and I seemed to
stand out, although we hadn’t a clue what we were doing, usually Callum
sorts us out but he was unfortunately ill on the day. But at the end of
the day, we were here to race…
About seven months
beforehand, I was diagnosed with osteochondritis (don’t worry it’s not
contagious) that is also named Freiberg’s disease. Cool huh. It’s
basically a flattened metatarsal head located on my middle toe of my
foot. It swelled up and the pain became too much to bear while running.
We began seeing a physiotherapist to try and diagnose my, at the time,
unknown injury. We believed it to be numerous things, from a broken toe
to Morton’s neuroma. Although a good pain relief was ultra-sound. We
finally gave up and chose to go to a specialist to get it thoroughly
checked out. The verdict was Freiberg’s disease and I wasn’t allowed to
run for, an apparent, six months. Within two months of resting and
ultra-sound twice a week, I was back running. The pain was being
controlled and I loved being back, although within the two months, I had
lost a lot of fitness. From being able to knock off six 400m in an
average of 79 seconds, to only just about able to get a seventh place in
my school’s cross-country race. Many of guys, I use to beat consistently
by two minutes were now beating me by three minutes. It was certainly an
eye-opener.
I soon got back into
running and continued to run consistently, while receiving constant
support from my dad, I suppose he should get a mention. Within a few
months back I was running 20 miles a week and for the last few weeks, is
now 30 miles a week. That included, some quality sessions, some free
runs, and a good long Sunday run, which was key. This meant improvement
was bound to come.
…I was off on the ‘B’ for
‘bang’, and found the hill to be a true hill. Nothing like ‘Stone Lane’
or such, which were much like pansy hills compared. Once over the top,
we started to run, then up the next hill through the trees, then around
the meadow part, up what can only be described as ‘sinking mud’, then
though a forest part and then down a hill so steep you couldn’t help but
feel ‘I’m gonna get a face full of mud any second’ from tripping over.
Then finally down the home straight to the finish.
|
David in full
flight, averaging near 7 min./miles on a muddy and hilly course |
My position was 144, which
was very pleasing. Many of the boys, who had beaten me quite
convincingly, were now behind me, and even some that were beating me
even before my injury by two minutes, were now only a minute in front.
The painful ‘62 mph capped’ minibus ride was totally worth it!
Then all the other junior
races went off, from which I hear great results. Then finally at the end
of the day, the senior women and men went off. Even more pleasing
results, although, a certain person needs to start running up the hills
faster and stop having a chat with supporters while racing,
CRAIG!
Overall, a very good day
had by, I believe, all. Thanks to Ian for making the day such a success
and to the many others that helped organise and drive minibuses, etc.
Here is the link of the
Garmin Connect site that has my run on it:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23563697
David
