Before you ask, yes I am still injured but yes I still intend to run this damn marathon.

It’s been a week, one filled with tears, hope and fucking stubbornness. Let’s go.

What did I get up to?

My right glute wasn’t getting any better despite resting and giving it a lot of TLC.

I woke up Tuesday morning crying, realising the only way to get to that start line is to pull out my credit card and call the physio.

High five to them, once I told them I had 12 days to go they fit me right in and have been super flexible since.

So what have I done?

Last year, I injured my IT band on my right side. Our bodies don’t forget stuff like this, so when I was tired the other week my IT band tapped out as it refused to get injured again.

So my glute picked up the slack until it overdid it, and voila! Here we are.

My right leg was also proper weak because it had just given up haha, so from Tuesday to Saturday I worked on strengthening the leg.

What was mostly reassuring was that my physio was confident I can get to the start line.

Did it work?

Well that was stage 1. There was no point in the physio treating my leg if it was as going to just fall apart again. I was disheartened that I was still in pain, but when I went again on Saturday my physio reassured me that it’s fine.

Stage 2 is all about getting my leg ready for running as well as relieving the pain. As I write this on Monday, I am definitely feeling better and my leg feels much stronger.

I go again on Tuesday for Stage 3 which is dynamic strength.

I haven’t been sleeping properly as I wake up to my glute hurting. I do hope it goes before race day! Everything crossed for me please.

What else did I get up to?

Work, physio have been big parts of my week so much fun…

I’ve also been out a lot with running friends, first on Wednesday with my Arcade Beers social run group for a meal at Primo. We had a lovely walk first and we even saw some cats!!

Then yesterday (Sunday), my running club Lindley Running Club smashed the Calderdale Way Relay and we celebrated with a lovely curry.

On Saturday Huddersfield parkrun was off so my friend Becky kindly gave us a lift to Rothwell where we walked. It was a beautiful morning.

I also volunteered at Junior parkrun on Sunday. Huddersfield celebrated its 9th birthday so there was cake!

With the tears and the pain, there was a moment where I didn’t think I would make the start line.

What has been so wonderful to me is how lovely everyone has been. It’s not just kind words and reassurance, there has been offers of going on walks and have a coffee and cake being supportive. If I wasn’t able to run next weekend, there were suggestions of running a marathon relay to ensure I’d have someone to run with me.

I even had a friend, who swore they would never run a marathon again, to run an entire of one with me!

That’s friendship!

It also shows that running is a team sport. I’m not going to be conquering any club records, but my teammates are all invested in my journey and will be cheering me on no matter what. That’s what helps me push on.

Do I have to race it?

I know some of you are probably thinking, it’s not worth the risk and I should back out.

Nah. If I can get to that start line not feeling in pain, I am going to run it.

Looking at the weather next weekend (around 20 degrees!) it’s going to be a tough one, so even if I had trained perfectly it’s unlikely I’d run as well as I’d hoped to.

This race is going to be a lesson of what a marathon is like. I can use this, along with what I’ve learnt from training to do better next time.

Yeah.

I’m going to run another marathon next year. Let’s goooo!

This week’s song is because I’m able to move about more. I can run up the stairs and yes sir, I can boogie! So should be able to run. Soon.