One year exactly after my last competitive event, following a long injury saga, I managed a fourth successive participation in Les Hivernales de Boitsfort - not bad, considering I've only been in Belgium for six years...
I was still not ready to race, so I went in with the intention of doing my standard weekend long run here, at a slow pace. In the beginning it was in fact slower than I had bargained for, having placed myself too far back from the starting line, so much that the first three kilometres took up no less than 18 minutes. At that rate I would take up close to 2 hours! OK, the finishing time wasn't important, but I still wanted to do a decent run, which is why I increased the pace to make up a bit for lost time.
I ended up doing my usual routine of trying to catch up with and overtake a long succession of runners. It was almost like a typical long distance race, and even though the pace was slow by my normal standards (and I certainly hope to achieve better speeds as I recover my fitness), I rediscovered the thrill of racing for a long distance.
The pain in my thigh? I was aware of it all the time. I'm always aware of it whenever I run now, but it's not really bad. There was a point close to the end of the run, with a sharp, fast downhill stretch on uneven ground where I became a bit scared of losing my footing, but otherwise I was OK.
This was my longest run after the injury. For most of it I ran faster than training pace, and my concern was whether I would suffer any consequences. Well, I'm happy to note that two days later I have done my normal 10km weekly run, with the good old tendonitis ticking away vaguely exactly as I've become used to it - not any better, but certainly no worse than before.
I may even recover sufficiently to race properly one day.
