Weekend Runs

Kenneth (pm20) called me on Friday, asking if I wanted to run with him on Saturday morning in Klang. I agreed with him and he later told me that Martin (Lone Runner) would also be joining us.

On saturday, we met at the entrance of Taman Rakyat and started running from there, using the back routes of Klang and then heading to the main highway on Jln Langat before heading back to Tmn Rakyat. Total distance covered was about 8k. I felt that I may have pushed the pace too hard trying to keep up with pm20, and in the end my left foot starting showing signs of the injury again.

After the run, we had decided to go to Bukit Aman the next morning for a long run. I picked up Kenneth at 5am and we arrived at Bukit Aman by 5.30. Martin was there waiting for us. Before we started a friend of pm20, Jessica had arrived and we all started running together.

My foot showed no signs of pain when I started, and I paced with Martin while pm20 was running with Jessica.. hehe! By the time I had run about 4km and had turned left onto Jln Tunku and was making my way downhill, the pain suddenly hit, and oh boy what a pain it was. Such severe pain that I didn't know where it came from.

I was forced to stop and told Martin I was calling it a day. I asked him to go on ahead but he was too much of a gentleman for that and walked me back to Bukit Aman. We chilled out about 45 minutes and spoke to some of the other runners who were just starting to run including Richard (pm36) before some of the first batch of runners started coming back.

We left after chatting with some familiar faces, including Jamie, Lawrence, Adam and Tey. My foot was better by then but I knew that this was not to be the end of my problems with this injury. For the rest of the day my foot starting having sporadic severe-sharp-shooting pains which I can't for the life of me figure out where it comes from.

I've reverted to my oral anti-inflammatory tablets. I'm going to rest completely from running for one week. I shall be doing some cross training i.e weight training, stretching and brisk walking on my treadmill (with an incline). Hopefully these exercises will keep me from loosing too much of my fitness. I shall have to be very careful with my diet for the next two weeks as well.

One thing I have decided is that my pair of Nike Pegasus shall be washed and turned into my casual (jalan-jalan) shoes. I shall be using my New Balance if I do make it to the starting line of KLIM. After KLIM, I am going to invest in a pair of New Balance 766, 4E. I am almost completely certain that this injury was caused by the Nikes and the fact that they are really narrow and snug, and do not expand along with my feet on my long runs.

I've been adviced to consider registering for the half marathon instead. I did think about it and have decided that if I cannot recover in time for the full, I shall not be running at all in this year's KLIM. I don't really feel overly disappointed with what has happenned, as I've come to realise that this is part and parcel of running. As I'm still a new runner, there will be many more good and important lessons to be learnt, and there will be many more marathons for me to take part in again. So for now, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.