GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR......

Ah it was all going so well until this weekend. This is what happened.

Last week a running friend of mine from Scotland let me know that she was coming to visit her sister, who lives about 16 miles away from us. So we were emailing and arranging a meet-up, and I mentioned that I was registered for a local 10K on Sunday. To my surprise and delight, my friend made a spontaneous decision to sign up too! I was really excited - what better way to catch up than to run together?!

On Friday morning I ran a very slow and easy 5 miles, clear that my priority was the 10K, but wanting to keep up my recent good weekly mileage. Later that day I felt a little discomfort around my left ankle, but nothing much. In the evening, I noticed that it was very tender to the touch.

Robbie's birthday cake

On Saturday morning, I woke up with it feeling quite a bit worse. The ankle was hurting now, and I had to walk with a limp. However, Friday had been Robbie's 8th birthday, and we had a long-standing plan with another family to spend the day at Legoland! So that's what we did.

Hunky Lego dude

I spent the whole day on my feet, and most of it walking up and down the theme park, sometimes rushing to get to a show. My ankle got worse and worse, and when I sat down in the afternoon, I looked at it and saw to my horror, that it was swollen beyond all recognition. As the say went on, I was aware that I wanted to take my shoe off and not put anymore weight on that leg, but of course that was impossible.

By the time we left, I couldn't drive because I could hardly bend my foot.

By the time we got home (about 9pm), I couldn't walk at all or put weight on the foot. Pete had to give me a piggy back to the front door! It was blindingly obvious, even to a runner-in-denial that there would be no running the following day.

I felt so bad that my friend had paid for and registered for the race and now I had to pull out! I was also particularly gutted because I've done this race for the past 2 years and I really like it. I wanted it to be my first ever 3rd time at a race, and the kids have also done the children's races too. Anyway, on Sunday morning, we went to the race start as planned so Robbie and Emma could run. In the end my friend persuaded her husband to take her place so we could catch up during the race. She said she was feeling a bit concerned anyway, as she had a baby in March and hasn't run as far as 10K since then!

So Robbie and Emma did the 500m, along with my friend's son and her nephew. Then I watched the 10K-ers set off. I must admit, it was pretty sad watching them all run the race I should've been in, especially as the weather was good too. Still, it was great to see my friend and her family.

More medals!

I rested the foot for the rest of the day, and by Monday morning I was ok to drive to work. Today I've been to the Doctor, and he said it's probably a torn ligament - I was relieved when he said it was unlikely to be a stress fracture - phew! He gave me a long tubi-grip bandage and anti-inflammatories. It's much better than Saturday, but still swollen.

The most frustrating thing is that I don't know how I did it! I am going to get some new trainers though, just in case. The doctor said at least 2 weeks off running, so that's going to be pants. At least the rest of the family is still running...