Oh my word, woke up on Friday with exactly the same feeling of constant twanging in the back of my left knee that I had when I injured myself before, only this time I could still put my heel to the floor. The pain was unbearable at the point of the “twang” but was gone in no time, until the next time. I was so pleased to be seeing the physio that afternoon but had to get through the day first which was no mean feat. I was wondering if I’d overdone it the evening before, not the distance, but subconsciously trying to keep up with Andrew instead of setting the pace myself. It was all I could think of. But like before, I just wish my knee would let me know that it’s in difficulty so that I could have stopped. Nothing until this morning, which is really not helpful.
At my physio appointment, Rob listened to my symptoms and we talked about the training programme and how I could increase what I was doing. He carried out a physical examination of my knee/leg and pronounced me fit. Not sure that I agreed but I understood what he meant; there was no damage and as soon as the twanging stopped I could carry on training. But how long would it last this time??
Saturday and Sunday we were bag packing in Tesco Spytty Extra in aid of Leukaemia CARE. Saturday would have been Gavin’s 53rd birthday and I messaged Ann-Marie to say I was thinking of her. Steph drove up from Plymouth to help and Andrew did almost 4 hours on the Saturday. I thought that a realistic target would be about £300 for each day but we raised £485 on Saturday. We had a number of compliments from customers who were pleased to receive help from “mature” bag packers rather than younger children and teenagers. The secret for me was to engage with the customers, get them talking. However, I wasn’t prepared for the two individuals who spoke to me, one of whom was suffering from leukaemia and the other was recovering from it. What do you say to that?
On the Sunday, 3 of Izzy’s friends came to help us. The store was very busy because the weather was atrocious and we didn’t really have enough of us or enough buckets, but we did the best we could and were flabbergasted when we counted the money that night to see that we had raised £986.88 over the two days. Just incredible, and when I posted it on Facebook we immediately had 2 offers to make it up to £1,000. Carrying the coins to the bank on Monday was arduous. The bag was so heavy I had to stop twice between the car park and the bank. But I got it changed up and it was very real. Customers had been so generous and kind and we are extremely grateful for the support.
My knee was well strapped up over the weekend. I could hardly confess to the injury could I when I’m supposed to be running (a) the Cardiff Half Marathon in 4 weeks’ time, and (b) the London Marathon next year. A few times I had to cling onto the checkout just until the pain subsided but I tried very hard not to let on. Here we are, with one of Izzy’s friends on the right, getting ready to raise some serious cash:
I did nothing training-wise this weekend, so that was my fourth rest day in succession which wasn’t great. Yesterday I had to visit the GP to get my MRI result officially (I had already had it from the physio as it was on the system). The GP chatted to me about my knee and told me not to overdo it. She also offered for one of the other GPs to give me a pain killing injection into my knee if I wanted and suggested January as that would see me through to the end of the marathon. She confessed that when she ran her marathon (which I thought she’d completed successfully) she hurt her ankle after 7 miles and had to walk/run the rest, a bit like me now. I think she’s hoping not to see me again before the marathon but I’ll certainly let her know how I get on.
Today I saw the osteopath for a planned appointment and hopefully she’s put me back together (again). Interestingly, the twanging has stopped so if that remains the case, I’ll do a gentle run tomorrow. Jane, the osteopath, found sore bits in my legs I didn’t even know were there and proceeded to hurt them even more, all in the name of getting the tightness out of the muscles. I thought it was just my hips that were hurting when I went in but clearly not. Hopefully, I’ll feel the benefit of her pummelling tomorrow.
Another runner, raising money for Marie Curie at the London Marathon next year, is now following my blog which is lovely. I’ll follow her too as it’s really interesting to read why people are running and how they’re tackling such a serious challenge. Everybody has their own personal story. Perhaps all us London Marathon 2018 bloggers will arrange to meet up in London before the event. That would be something.
Rona's 2018 London Marathon Story 