My Lakeland Trail Marathon Niggle…
I entered the Coniston Lakeland Trail marathon late in 2013 as something to look forward to after my Cateran trail adventure in May, and an excuse for a weekend away. Its easy to get blasé about such races when you are surrounded by people doing West Highland Ways and the like, and after completing the Cateran trail race 6 weeks earlier, I told myself I wasn’t go to. It was still a marathon, it was still 700ish metres ascent. I planned my times between the well spaced food stops (12K, 19K, 31K, 37K) and looking at the profile most of the climb was at the front so I’d walk those hills and pick up the pace later. But they were gentle climbs that made it tricky to decide when to walk, and easy to stretch the legs on the other side. And so it went, until I got a small ‘niggle’ in my shin after about 8K. Odd, I couldn’t remember knocking it, or catching it on anything. Oh well, I’m sure it will pass. Maybe it was a bite. Never mind, I’m sure something else will hurt soon. But it didn’t go away. Niggle, niggle…The next section was still nice and runnable and I perhaps picked up the pace a little. But I was feeling good, apart from that niggle… After the 2nd food stop at about half way I started running the gentle inclines, overtaking people, feeling good. Then it got a little more technical and the niggle became more apparent. That long descent, which in my head was lush gentle runnable grass, turned out to be steep, with big rocks just waiting to trip you up. The niggle got a little worse and by the time I reached food stop 3 I was suffering. I carried on but running on the tricky tracks become tougher. In truth it wasn’t that bad by now, a little boggy, but generally meandering grassy tracks through bracken, but I was losing places. Then at last the final food stop and just 4K to go. In my head this was a nice runnable, grassy, lakeside run in there to enjoy. Wrong. It was undulating tree-covered, and rooty, not what my shin needed. But finally, the last 1.5K came and it was indeed flat and runnable, and and I was able to run almost unaffected by my shin. But it was still niggling. And then it was over, and I could barely walk. I was slower than I had hoped, but i will confess to underestimating this challenging course. It’s a great trail race that anyone interested in seeing some gorgeous terrain and countryside should consider, plus they have half marathon and ‘Challenge’ events too. Varying trails, tracks and scenery, and despite my scepticism at entering an event with a price tag of around £40ish and promised a special technical t and medal for all finishers along with entertainment, it was fab!! It still felt like a small town event, and boosted by the sunshine had a great post race atmosphere. As for my shin, well my self-diagnosis says stress fracture, still awaiting a professional opinion, but it looks like I might need to find something else to do over the next 6-8 weeks. Maybe I’ll finally make it along to one of those Sunday bike rides I keep promising myself, or maybe I’ll take up dominos… http://www.lakelandtrails.org/marathon/results.php
Chris Henty