The not Stamford St Valentine's 30k 2012

Training for a marathon is like walking a ledge. When you are on the ledge you are training well. Sometimes, but not often you'll walk above the ledge but it's very easy to fall off the ledge and then getting back on the ledge is difficult. The aim is to keep on the ledge until race day.

This week has been a disappointment. After the Rauceby Ripper I didn't run Sunday until Thursday. On Thursday I ran with Grantham AC and about one mile into an 8ish mile run I turned my ankle again. I managed to get up and keep running without much difficulty but the ankle was swollen the next day. Consequently I didn't run on Friday or Saturday. Sunday was the St Valentine's 30K, a great race organised by Stamford Striders. On Saturday morning whilst shopping in Nottingham I got a call from a friend who runs for Stamford Striders...the race was off.

The 2011 race inc Catherine Payne & Mark Hillson, Grantham AC

Snow had fallen across Lincolnshire on Thursday evening which might have contributed to my turned ankle. By Saturday the thaw was well underway. It was explained to me that although much of the course was clear, 2.5 kilometers of the route was covered in sheet ice. Despite the organisers purchasing £200 worth of salt and calling on an army of volunteers to "pick" the ice, their efforts were in vain. The course was too dangerous and the race was called off, a decision that I'm sure the majority of runners, whilst disappointed, will support. I had run but 8 steady miles in a week and now a key race in the build up to London wasn't going to happen. I had fallen off the ledge.

I didn't feel at all like it but decided to do another lap of the 25 mile training route across the Vale of Belvoir described below. I decided to try and run faster to compensate for the lost race pace. I felt like I had run much faster and was surprised to get back home just three minutes faster than a lap of the route two weeks earlier. At least I'd salvaged something from a slack week and did at least feel like I was back, or almost back on the ledge! Next up, the Sleaford Half Marathon, a race I haven't done before and hopefully a bit of decent mileage and "terrible" speed work before then.