It’s March and I find myself once again in an all too familiar and depressing situation – whether or not to pull out of a race because of injury. It’s a little depressing that I am once again writing this sort of post, especially when I have several race reports to write up because, yes, since recovering from breaking my foot last year, I have raced. Unfortunately, it’s as a result of the most recent one (report coming soon) that I am sitting here wondering what to do.

But first, some background. At the end of November, at our club AGM, we had the annual lottery for the London Marathon entries allocated to the club. (Read more information about that scheme on the VLM website). On a last minute whim, I put my name into the hat and, yes, you guessed it, won a place. Then, three days later in a rather foolish and ill-advised foray back onto a rugby pitch, I pulled my right calf muscle quite severely. Why was I on a rugby pitch? Don’t ask and I won’t tell (although I wasn’t playing a game of rugby – I never made it that far). The injury was serious enough for me to be relegated to crutches for 3 or 4 days and so December became a month of enforced rest.

I started running again at the end of December, testing out my calf and general fitness with some shorter runs at first before pushing up gradually to longer runs. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it was gradual enough and I increased pace and distance far too quickly given I was coming back from injury. The result? Well the calf is fine but somewhere along the way I managed to aggravate something on the opposite knee. So I cut back the distance, upped the cross training on cycle and rowing machine and changed my training plan to one that was considerably less aggressive in terms of overall distance and pace. While I may not have been getting massively long runs in (something others seem to worry about more than me), everything seemed to be manageable (including during a 6 mile trail race a couple of weeks ago).

But now I am back to limping around with a very sore knee three days after completing a local half-marathon. I pushed the race because a) I wanted to test my fitness and b) I wanted to see how my knee held up. The conclusions were: a) my fitness is fine, all things considered and b) my knee isn’t. So now, with five and a half weeks to go before the Marathon, I am in a quandary. I know that I could still do the marathon and am confident that (despite some recent unsolicited comments that amused me more than pissed me off) I would finish it. I mean, I could walk it in 6-7 hours and probably jog it gently in 5. I also know that after the marathon, I will be able to do 4-6 weeks worth of rehab before thinking about the next crazy adventure. As a bonus, there’s a possible challenge that I would absolutely relish in preparing for the marathon without actually doing any running but just doing non-impact training like cycling and rowing instead, specificity be damned.

On the other, probably more sensible, hand, I could defer my place and spend the next 4-6 weeks in rehab mode. It’s an option which irks me because I won the place this year and wouldn’t be using it when someone else in my club could have done and also because (so I’m led to believe) I’d still have to cough up the entry fee again for next year which makes this all a waste of money (and blah blah blah current economic client blah blah blah cost of kids clothing blah blah blah in a box with nothing but coal to eat). However, deferring is a tempting option because I know that whatever happens, I won’t be able to give the marathon my best shot or perform as well as I feel I could/should/would. Also, being both my first marathon and THE London Marathon, I want to enjoy it which may be tricky if, after say 15 miles, I find myself in absolute agony. Then again, I have the option of pacing one of the athletes I coach (yes, I’m coaching runners now) which will take the time pressure off me and be fun and satisfying in its own right. It doesn’t entirely mitigate the risk of pain though. Deferring does also mean the prospect of all the training and road running again next year and, I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed that bit very much at all (TrailDragon for a reason).

The decision doesn’t need to be made just yet though and I’ll be seeing my physio soon enough to better assess what’s going on, how severe it is and what the best possible course of action is. Objectively, the decision is easy and the only option is to be sensible: have an injury? Don’t run! The reality is invariably more nuanced though – but amongst all the factors that influence the decision, one thing needs to be borne in mind: if I was sensible, I wouldn’t be a runner.

Oh, and yes it really is true, I have actually done some races and I will write about them. Soon.