A painful fall

In 2002 I had quite a bad fall when I was out running, dislocating and fracturing my right shoulder. On Thursday night I was running down the steep track towards Comrie when I tripped over some tree roots. It was a really odd sensation. As soon as I tripped I had an incredible flashback to the fall 5 years ago. I lay on the ground and felt a very familiar pain in my shoulder (although it was my left one this time), and immediately wondered if I had done the same thing again. I got up and moved my arm about a bit. Although sore, it wasn't the excruciating pain I had the last time so it was clear I hadn't done the same damage. It was however quite painful when driving home, and for most of yesterday I found it very hard to move. My left leg was also quite badly bruised at a couple of points.

After work yesterday I went out for an easy run to see how it felt. I didn't really notice the pain in my shoulder and was able to run pretty much as normal. I had another physiotherapy session with Trevor last night, and my hamstring has also improved a lot. I've therefore decided to do the Glasgow half marathon tomorrow. I'm not looking for or expecting a fantastic time, but will be quite happy just to enjoy it and get round at a steady pace. I'm hoping my shoulder is fully recovered for my golf day at Millport next Friday.

There are a few other points worth mentioning. The entries for the 2008 West Highland Way race only opened about 2 weeks ago, and the race is full already. John Kynaston has a posting on his blog which shows all the entrants, along with their 2007 time and their personal best time for the race if they have done it before. http://www.kynaston.co.uk/blog/08race01.htm
From the looks of it there are only 7 of the 150 entrants who have a faster time than my best, although there are a number of very good runners who have not done it before, such as Jens Lukas who finished 2nd in last week's Ultra Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) race. Talking of the TMB, many congratulations to those who completed either the 163km route (Murdo McEwan, Jim Drummond) or the 85km route (Hugh Kerr, Cameron Campbell). Hugh has written a fantastic report on his race experience, which can be found on the Central AC website http://www.centralathletics.co.uk/Forum/index.php?topic=372.0
It sounds an incredible event. Maybe I'll do it one day?