Hi, it's Rebecca here again. Adrian and Rhiannon are really bad bloggers!!! Although, saying that, I've been a bad blogger lately too, having to fit Adrian's training in three nights a week, as well as all our other commitments has meant far less time for blogging lately! And Rhiannon is a very busy bee as well, working at least six days a week!
But Adrian and Rhiannon have both been working hard, training and preparing themselves for the marathon. But, unfortunately, over the past few days, we have had not one, but two setbacks to contend with.
Let me explain:
Setback Number One: Adrian's Bad Knee
A couple of weeks ago, Adrian came home from a 14 kms run complaining of pain in his right knee. I asked around for some advice on what to do, and the general advice was RICE, Rest, Ice, C(an't remember!) and Elevation. So he did that from about Tuesday to Sunday, and by Sunday, felt that his knee had improved enough for him to try running again.
So he ran something like 5 or 7 kms, without any pain, and then once he had finished his short run, the pain came back. He rested it again until the following Sunday (17th October), when he felt ready to try it again, but this time, he only ran 1 km before his knee gave out and he had to stop. He limped back to the car, and has been limping ever since.
As his knee clearly wasn't going to get better on it's own with just rest, I made Adrian an appointment at the GP surgery for Monday morning. He was examined by the doctor, who twisted his leg this way and that, and said that he feels that Adrian has a muscle imbalance. He said that this can be corrected using muscle strengthening exercises, which he has given to Adrian, and hopefully this will solve the problem.
However, today is Wednesday, and Adrian is still barely able to walk on his leg, let alone do exercises on it or run on it, so he's pretty stuck at the moment. He wants to get a knee support, and a friend has suggested that we go to a specialist running store and get them to 'check his gait' by videoing him running, but I think if he's still in this much pain on Friday, then I'm going to make him another doctors appointment.
Surely, if it's muscular, then he should have seen some improvement by now?? He's pulled muscles before during his training, and he's just had to rest for a couple of days and then he's been fine again, this has been going on for weeks, and since Sunday, the pain has been very high level and has yet to ease off at all. He's having to take pain killers (which he almost never does) and using Deep Freeze cream on it, but is still complaining of pain. And believe me, Adrian doesn't complain. So it must be bad.
So that's setback number one.
Setback Number Two: A Cancelled Marathon!
Adrian and Rhiannon booked their places on the Fylde Coast Marathon in June this year, I believe, and were confirmed as Runners 1 and 2 in the race, to run from Lytham St Annes, through Blackpool, and on to Fleetwood on 27th February 2011. Since then, they have been working hard, training their little hearts out. Adrian has been faithfully running three times a week, every week (he even went running while we were away on holiday for the week!), and Rhiannon has been training hard too, and has just shelled out £160 on special running shoes.
But then, on Monday, Rhiannon contacted me to say that she'd seen a post on Runners World saying that the Fylde Coast Marathon had been cancelled on 11th August!
I telephoned the organiser, who confirmed that the marathon had been cancelled in August, because they had found out that 6 miles of Blackpool's promenade is going to be closed for 6 months (including February) for refurbishments! And because the organiser didn't have the thousands of pounds it would cost to acquire a license to run the marathon through Blackpool town, they had to cancel the marathon. However, they said that all runners had been notified and had had their entry fees refunded back in August!
Er, no!
Somehow, even though Rhiannon and Adrian were Runners 1 and 2, they had neither been notified or refunded.
However ...
The marathon has now been replaced with two half marathons, one of which is to be run on 20th February 2011, which is called the Great North West Half Marathon, and another to be run in August 2011. And so, to make up for the organiser failing to notify us of the cancellation of the Fylde Coast Marathon, they have now transferred our entry fees over to the Great North West Half Marathon, and have given Adrian and Rhiannon free entry to the August half marathon as well.
So ... What Happens Now?
Well, Adrian and Rhiannon will now be running the Great North West Half Marathon on 20th of February in Blackpool, and you can find more details about this run here at Runners World. They are frustrated that they won't get to run a full marathon, but this will ease them in gently, particuarly Adrian, who has never taken part in a formal race of any kind before; and they plan to find a full marathon to run at some point in the future.
Also, because this is a half marathon, Adrian can allow his knee time to get better, and time to work on his knee strengthening exercises, then re-start his training and build up to running long distances again. Because he was due to start his 16 week Marathon countdown training programme on Monday, he would have run into difficulty had the marathon not been cancelled, because his knee has had him pretty much out of action for a couple of weeks now, and so he would have been way behind on his training.
So maybe it's all worked out for the best.
And either way, they've still got lots of hard work and training ahead of them, to prepare for the half marathon in February.
I'll keep you updated on how things go with Adrian's knee issues. Hopefully they will be resolved soon.
Feel free to sponsor Adrian and Rhiannon by clicking the link in the sidebar, they could do with some encouragement after these setbacks!
