Falling

Anyone remember 'The Bluebells'? They had a few hits, including one called 'I'm Falling', which went like this:

I'm falling down again
I been falling on down again
I been falling on down again
Falling on down
I been falling on down again
I been falling on down again
Falling on down

Why am I telling you this, I hear you ask? Unfortunately it sums up yesterday's run only too well. We ran from Beinglas Farm to Kingshouse, a total of 31 miles. After 19 miles, as we approached Bridge of Orchy station, I hit a stone and as Debbie so eloquently describes on her blog, went "ar*e over elbow". John's description is a bit more pastor-like: "Ian had a nasty fall along this bit". They were both right. It was bl**dy sore. I scraped both elbows, both knees, underneath my eye, and was covered in muck. Fortunately there was no lasting damage, unlike my last serious fall in 2002 when I fractured and dislocated my shoulder. On the negative side I'm going to look some state when I go into work tomorrow with a black eye.

Anyway, I picked myself up, gave myself a bit of a clean, and ran the remaining 12 miles to the finish. It wasn't my best run ever, and I felt the pace was a bit fast for most of it. I did the route in 5 hours 36 minutes - in last year's race it took me about 6 hours 50 minutes, so it shows how hard we were pushing. Maybe that's why I tripped.

Other blogs describe yesterday's run a lot more positively than I have. Lesson to self: you can't run brilliantly every week. I'm just hoping this was my bad week, and it all comes right at next week's National Cross Country.