Trevor wrote on 2 April
Today was the day when I was planning to run from home to Kew Gardens, run the Kew Half Marathon, and then run home. The total distance would have been 32k or thereabouts. It would have been the final long run before London in three weeks’ time.
None of this was to be though.
After my long run last weekend (of which more later) I started to develop a sore throat on Monday. I decided to miss running on Tuesday, but by Thursday I knew that any running for the rest of the week was out. I have been through the symptom cycle of sore throat, coughing, headache, running nose and headache. I am getting better now, but after being ahead with my training schedule, I am now thinking through the date permutations of running before I am too close to London for the costs to outweigh the benefits.
I travel with Din to Boston on Friday 14th for her Boston Marathon and will be back on the morning of Wednesday 19th. That will be time to get over any jet lag. There are two Parkruns in Boston (in the city, not 90 miles away) and probably some chance to run elsewhere, but all the training effectively has to be done before the 14th. So not where I wanted to be, but it could be worse. Without the chance of a ballot place for London I would have trained for Brighton, and I would not have been well enough to run that today. Din caught the infection before me, has lost two weeks, and has only two weeks to go before Boston.
In retrospect, I could have done the 32k on 26th March, but in terms of effort, I think I did far more. The plan that day was to get the 65 bus to Kingston, run to Hampton Court, then run the Hampton Court half marathon. I did that, and it got me an eventful 28k.
No issues getting to the race village. Kingston to Hampton Court was in the rain and I went at a good pace despite having to carry a backpack with something dry and warm to travel home in. I would need that after becoming well acquainted with the tow path and surrounding roads during the next few hours.
The set-up near the Palace was the same as for the 10k which I did in November 2021 as the comeback race from my meniscus injury. The field though was huge – approximately 4000 runners. The route was back down the towpath to Kingston, over the bridge. Then down the towpath, then Portsmouth Road to Surbiton. On to Thames Ditton and back to Hampton Court Bridge. Back down the towpath again to Kingston, then left into Hampton Court Park and back to the Palace. Basically this was the same route as the Kingston 16 miles the week before, but in reverse and a scenic park detour.
The problem was that towpath was covered in deep puddles, and the road sections were crowded on narrow paths. I was constantly being overtaken or overtaking, as many runners were either in the wrong starting wave and/or were finding the conditions difficult as I was. A few drivers on the Portsmouth Road also thought it was fun to drive into the standing water to spray already wet runners (or maybe that was my mindset?).
Once I got to the Kingston Bridge for the second time, I thought ‘Just a few k though the park to the end. Almost done. Easy. No lorries to spray you with rainwater in the park.’ I didn’t reckon on the final 4k being a quagmire of ankle-deep mud. (NB: quag= shaking; quagmire = shaking mud.) At that point it was just get to the end and forget the distance and time. Enough was enough. Just get to the end and don’t risk an injury by tripping up in a pothole. Over-the-top medal and a can of beer, but better was the dry shirt and relatively dry hoodie. Just get home now and get warm.
I have walked to Hampton Court from Northfields in 3 hours and 40 minutes. On 26th it took me 3 hours to get home. No buses at Hampton Court. Eventually an R86 to Richmond – which stopped just beyond Twickenham due to roadworks. I walked into Richmond. No 65s for at least 35 mins and then the one that might show would stop at the Great West Road due to …. road works. I got a District Line to Chiswick Park, but signals held that up, as well as the train to back to Acton Town. At Acton, I finally had some luck. A Heathrow train was cancelled and was only going as far as Northfields. Did I care at that point? Northfields is my stop. Who cares about the tourists needing Heathrow – although to be fair I did advise a couple of elderly Americans what to do as they were confused that Northfields did not look like a major international airport.
Din met me and I said, “I only did 28k, but the journey back feels like 42k on its own.” In a way I think it was good cross-training as I was so cold, tired and miserable I got into the trance-like auto pilot stage you can get at the end of a marathon. I just felt it in a bus shelter in Richmond figuring out what to do when faced with a 36-minute wait for a bus that probably never arrived anyway.
But the future is still positive. I will recover and I will be able to get London. The plan is to re-enter the schedule as soon as I get through a short test run. Things will need adjusting because of the Boston trip, but I am more determined than ever to do this.
Thanks as ever for the support.