To Wilmslow or not To Wilmslow

[stillwaddler]

After an encouraging visit to the physio,(another shceduled for tomorrow) and much heavy duty strapping it looks like I could be in business for the 1/2 at Wilmslow on Sunday, the physio said I could certainly do it I wanted (what could she know!!) and as they have a stall there on Sunday even offered to re-strap me before the event.....ooohh I'm woefully short on running miles in the last few weeks but I am very tempted, however, the organisers are pushing the fact that this is 'a race and not a run' and that 'you will be disqualified if seen walking over the start line 'and how everyone should be 'capable of running for at least the first five miles'...still, sod it as they say, I tried to find a phone number to scratch earlier in the week and failed to find anything in any of their blurb, I might just as well go for it. My husband has entered, so he can always give me a piggy back home if I get stuck :-)

Shall I do it??? Answers on a postcard please....

I must admit Andy having read your accounts of your last 2 halfs in a fortnight (woe- that is some running) I really think I should try.

[El Gordo]

Hi SW, sorry about the delay in replying but I've been a bit... well, a bit drunk recently. There's no other way of putting it.

Ah, Wilmslow. Good old Wilmslow. I used to work very close to there. Their attitude towards slower runners achieved some notoriety last year on the RW messageboard. They do seem very sniffy about the danger of being polluted by slower runners. One half of me says "stuff 'em", they don't deserve your presence. But the other half says that it will be a good test for the foot, and if you've entered, it's a shame to waste it.

On the medical front, you've been cleared to run, so perhaps that should be reassurance enough. If you are strapped up, at least you'll look as if you have a great excuse to slow down.

Yeah, go for it. What's the worst that can happen? Confirmation that Wilmslow is full of..... idiosyncratic types? Boogar 'em.

Do let us know what happened.

Cheers, and the very best of luck if you do decide to do it.

Andy

[El Gordo]

The suspense is killing me, SW. Did you make it???

[stillwaddler]

Firstly how weird because I prepared a reply yesterday morning, however, yesterday was v. busy and I could have prepared it and then been interrupted before I posted?....another senior moment?

Many thanks for your encouragement Andy, I read it on Saturday when the weather was so lousy here I was having second and third thoughts about entering....however, the gales on Sunday morning seemed to be of slightly less severity so we duly toddled over to "Footballers Wives Country" to do the deed.

The very nice people from my physio place were there and strapped the ankle up good and strong.

To cut a long story short I finished, 2 hours 35 on their clock 2 hours 33 on my Garmin - yes a v.slow time, I would have expected to do anything between 2 and 2.15 when fit, but hey I DID IT!!!

Actually when I checked my training log what with the flu and the ankle I haven't run anything longer than 5 miles in training since Christmas, oops, and all things considering I feel fine except for a little stiffness behind both knees - getting away with murder really, my calves felt totally seized at 10 miles :-(

Compensations of the day - the crowd were great, there were a couple of footballers wives at their front gates at about mile 2 shouting encouragement and bless them they were still there on the way back at about mile 12 when I really needed all the help I could get and they certainly provided it :-) I heard my first chiff chaff of the year and saw lots of celandines. That area of Cheshire is rather different from my side, they have a slightly higher proliferation of loose boxes, paddocks and swimming pools ;-)

Incidentally my 2 stone over weight husband beat me by 5 minutes - what can I say!

The hot bath and lashings of beer afterwards were marvellous and as it was Mothers Day I didn't even have to prepare supper.

[Riazor Blue]

All things considered, a fine run. They say that the weather was lousy on Sunday, so all credit for making it out of bed in the first place. I know I would have thought twice about it. (The weather was pretty good here, and I didn't make it out of bed until 11.30)

I also find that lashings of beer are fine recompense for such hard endeavours.

Well done Mr. SW aswell.

[El Gordo]

Originally posted by stillwaddler
we duly toddled over to "Footballers Wives Country" to do the deed.

LOL! Yes, last time I went for a drink at a bar in Wilmslow, we found ourselves on the next table to Gary Neville and glamorous wife/partner.

Well done on getting round, that's fantastic. 2:33 with a strapped-up ankle sounds absolutely fine to me. I'm not a lot faster than that without such a good excuse. Sounds like the race was a nicer experience than we feared.

Not quite sure what a "loose box" is. Is this Cheshire jargon for a detached house...?

Let's hope you can get back to regular running again. This sounds like a pretty vigorous workout, so the signs are good.

Three cheers for SW:
Hip hip! Hoooorayyy...!
Hip hip! Hooooraaayyyyy..!!!
Hip hip! Hoooooorrrrrayyyyyyy...!

Andy

[stillwaddler]

I'm blushing!!! but thanks a million

(incidentally a loose box is a seperate large stable - they seem to come in large blocks of them around Mobberley)