The Road to Berlin

I am sat on the edge of my bed staring down at my knee contemplating what condition my body will be in a week from now. Back in March myself and 3 friends enthusiastically signed up for the Berlin Marathon, I was optimistic but under no illusion, I knew this was a big deal and have since trained hard for it. The race is now looming less than two days away and out of the 4 that signed up only 3 are competing and only one is racing uninjured.

A Marathon is 26.2 miles, it takes roughly 40,000 strides to complete, each step exerts forces of 2-3 times your own body weight and after the event you are around 2cm shorter than when you started. Its not surprising that eventually this sort of punishment takes its toll on a body. Endurance wise it is difficult to explain what the longer sessions feel like until you have actually done one for yourself. Fatigue is a strange thing, it sort of creeps up on you like a great wave building in strength until it crashes all over your body but if you keep pushing eventually it passes. During my training iv heard many stories of black toenails, bleeding feet, people fainting meters from finish lines and others running directly into bollards. For me its been shin splints and calf injuries however these only hurt to a point and then the pain plateaus mixing with the infusion of endorphins and adrenaline that helps take the edge off. I received my latest injury in the form of a damaged knee ligament about 3 weeks ago and it has steadily worsened. Unlike the other afflictions that just require mental focus to overcome, the ligament injury has weakened my leg so it gives way after so many miles. Thus I have reluctantly rested for just over a week. all I can think is I should be out training!

The most difficult thing is the acceptance that it is very unlikely I will be able to complete the Marathon in the time I have been training for 3:30. The new goal, simply to finish without injuring myself further.
The conditions are far from ideal but thats ok, I dont think it would be right if this was going to be easy or comfortable.