To Run Or Not To Run

My preparation for this year's Cateran Trail Ultramarathon wasn't really as good as it should have been. For starters, my training hasn't been great this year - too many long runs that have felt tired and slow rather than fun and easy. And to make matters worse, I got a really sore foot on the Tuesday before the race - not really sure what the problem was but some sort of pain on the top of the foot on the inside above the arch (any medical people who want to diagnose this please let me know in the comments). The pain was bad enough to stop me running the Durris Mast race on Thursday evening and at that point I was putting my chances of running on Saturday at about 40% (the length of the blog might give you a clue as to whether I reached the start line so don't scroll down if you don't like spoilers). The foot felt a bit better on Friday so I went ahead and registered at the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel but felt the pain increase a little over the course of the evening - as I headed for bed, I really didn't think it would be worth pulling on my shorts in the morning. A combination of high winds, a draughty window, a banging fire door and the foot pain meant that I didn't get a lot of sleep; I think I was still awake at about 1:30am when I took some more Paracetamol and played some games on my phone in the hope that it would make me sleepy enough to get a couple of hours kip before the 5:30am breakfast alarm. I woke feeling less sore, got dressed as if I was going to run, and headed off for a nice breakfast with the mrs and a quick hello to many of the runners who we hadn't seen in the bar the previous evening. After breakfast I jogged a few steps to see how things felt. Well, it was a wee bit sore, but no worse than I've felt at the end of other races so there was nothing for it but to get ready to run, take some more paracetamol, sort out the drop bags and join everyone for the wee walk round to the start line and we were soon off on another wee adventure.

But that's a story that needs more time in the telling so I'll sign off for now.

(Sorry to anyone who believed the bit about the length of the blog being significant in any way)