Sunday, February 17, 2008

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.

3 comments:

Thomas said...

Ian,
I am one of those runners who enjoyed that day a lot. In fact it was one of the best runs I've ever had (well and I did not fall. Not this time...).
And it was a great pleasure meeting you. Although we had only a small chat it was very inspiring. Thanks for all your advice!

Marco Consani said...

Hi Ian,

I hope that you are feeling better today. You looked miserable after you fell.
Take care and speak to you on the next run.

Marco

Marco Consani said...

Hi Ian,
Good luck with the race tomorrow. Look forward to reading all about it in the blogs.

Marco