Not Made For Running

Posted by schofs on 20 Jul 2013 in Running | 0 comments

While the Sports Physio was ok at relieving the shin pain, it was only temporary – every time I ran, the shin splints returned. It was time to go techy, so I decided to get an appointment at Surrey Foot & Ankle clinic where they specialise in, well, feet and ankles.

So there I lay in the MRI scanner, waiting for it to start getting noisy. They pipe music into your ears to help drown out the machine, but when the noise kicked in, it was bad. I mean really bad. Every fibre of my being wanted to get out of there, but I wasn’t allowed to move. I had no choice but to grit my teeth and fight my way through all 4 minutes and 23 seconds of Simply Red’s Fairground. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.

3 MRI scans later, and I was hearing what the doctor had to say. About my legs, not the music. He talked quite a bit about the tightness of my calves, and where the arches in my feet were collapsing as I ran. He then summarised everything in 8 simple words. These legs were not made for running marathons.

Bloody brilliant.

He also recommended another Physio who’d treat the problem rather than the symptoms, and that’s going pretty well. I’ve got a hell of a lot of core strengthening exercises to do, and I need to learn a completely new style of running, but I feel like it’s the only way to continue.

But I do now need to start thinking about what I’m meant to do about this situation I’ve found myself in. I’ve got Chester Marathon coming up in less than 3 months, and then London Marathon next year… and I haven’t done anything longer than a 5k since March. And I need to learn how to run completely differently. Oh yeah, and all on legs that aren’t made for running marathons.