My first foray into long distance running was back in high school. Terang High School, year 10, a long time ago. We were lucky enough to have a geography teacher who happened to be a great cross country runner. Trevor Wickham was an enthusiastic teacher and very knowledgeable in his area of specialty. He was only too happy to pass on any advice to anyone that was prepared listen
At 16, anything sport related sounded like a pretty good option. A handful of the boys in our year started to join Trevor for a morning run, several times a week. It sounded good until he started making us run longer and longer distances. We would be running the streets of Terang in the hours before school for what seemed like a marathon, but now thinking about where we ran, would have been 3 or 4 kms.
This training led us to two major events that year. The first was a 3000m at the athletics sports. It was actually the first time a long distance event had been held at the school. For most of the race the group of us that had been training together were foxing each other at the front of the pack, all knowing what each other was capable of. With about 200m to go, somebody from outside the group rounded us up and sprinted away to win. Good on him, but so much for all the training.
The distance was fine, the steady pace I could do, but don’t make me sprint to the finish, I wasn’t built for that.
The other event of that year was the inter-school cross country. The distance, 4 or 5 kms was no problem, the creek and mud just added to the challenge, but the bloody hills around Timboon were a killer. I’m not exactly sure now where we ran, but it seemed over every hill was another hill. To this day though, I still feel that pain every time I trudge up a hill. As a group, this time the training paid off, we did manage to win the teams event.
Turns out the foot soreness from last week was a bit of a problem. Thinking back, I actually injured my foot in an innocuous incident on a rough footpath, ironically, walking to the MCG. I’ve had to ice my foot each night in an attempt to reduce the swelling. I have been constantly reminded of the injury plagued preparation for my first fun-run. I had to postpone my training session early in week in order to give it some chance of recovery. I was still able to get two sessions in later in the week and it was feeling better each day.
Consequently I ran just 12 kms Sunday morning (what have I become that I now consider 12ks a short run?). I was still feeling OK at 12 ks, it seems to be from there on I start having a few problems. 22ks for the week
I ran into the local running group, not quite Bourke St, but the busiest I’ve seen the walking track. It’s good to know you’re not the only mad one in the town.
That was the morning and everything was feeling good. The afternoon though, not so much. An IKEA furniture incident in which a piece of shelving smashed across my toes, and I was only in socks. Massive pain and almost instant bruising. Several toes have now swollen and are still pretty tender. Official diagnosis is unknown, and I’m not sure I really want to find out. This will definitely impact on the schedule for this week.
Warning: The following contains graphic images.
40 days to go.
Run Muzz Run 