I’m pleased to say it was a dry day, mostly cloudy, breezy, with occasional sunny spells so more good running conditions.
Our accommodation is in the Shackleton Lodge which is a few hundred yards from Brathay hall in the woods. It’s a love quiet spot. After having breakfast I walked down to the hall for my pre-race physio with Charlotte who has been assigned the task of looking after me. On the way there I got a strange twanging pain in the back of my left knee which left me hobbling. This was something I’d never experienced before and worried me greatly. Charlotte and head physio Adam had a look at it and weren’t too concerned but when Charlotte worked in that area it was extremely painful. I was concerned this might seriously affect my 10in10 challenge. I left the physio room very concerned. This occasional pain in the back of my left knee knocked my confidence so I started the race slowly. Four miles into the race I reached Hawkshead, the pain wasn’t there I was so relieved. I ran slightly faster up to half way and still it wasn’t affecting my running so I picked the pace up during the second half to something more like my normal pace. I think the high point of the day was the relief of finishing without this possible injury scare badly damaging my 10in10 challenge. Let’s hope this pain doesn’t get worse over the coming days and become a significant problem.
Shortly after finishing I was escorted to a small room in Brathay Hall and asked to do a short telephone interview with Lakeland Radio from Kendal. I’m always very nervous when asked to do anything like this but with being given such short note I couldn’t dwell on it and quickly got stuck into a short conversation about the event and Brathay with the DJ. I think it went well and I was able to plug Brathay’s Fun Day which is also being held on Sunday with the main marathon.
After tea I had a visitor, it was my old school friend Richard who was in the area on a course. I was so pleased he had made the time to pop across to see me and it was great to have a relaxing evening catching up with him.
