I run, therefore I am

For the last couple of years my running shoes have accompanied me on all my travels and I have done some amazing runs in different countries. At the end of the day, I find it quite nice to lace up my shoes and head out for a run, it loosens up my body and relaxes my mind. This summer I have run in England, Wales, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Sweden.

One of the highlights of my running season was the Penrith parkrun in north Wales where I, despite some troubles with my right foot, managed to complete on a – for me – average 5k time. Start and finish is inside the castle, very spectacular and the people were super friendly and slightly excited having a guest on a Swedish registered motorbike 🙂

Following this, I gave my foot some rest and it seemed the problem disappeared so I slowly begun running again. I had no problems with my foot for a couple of weeks and I could run 10k or an hour without problem so I thought it was game on again. Our predicament due to the Brexit means that we are staying longer in the UK than we originally intended and to take advantage of our difficulties I started planning for a new Fundraising Marathon-challenge for my 40^th birthday. I signed up for the Beachy Head Marathon, which is a recurring running event for my friends from the Sudbury Court Running Club and I felt that it would be lovely to join paths with them again. Ironically, the same day I signed up, my foot problems suddenly returned and I had to walk back from my run. This time, I blamed the asphalt and put myself on another week of rest and then slowly re-started my training. I had now promised myself to only run on trails and gravel roads – at my parents’ house in Sweden there are many good possibilities for this sort of running and I was enjoying myself immensely running different routes in the forest. Then again, during a fast paced 6k run the pain suddenly returned.  Following some reading up on the internet I prescribed myself with a month of no running, suspecting a stress fracture in a small bone in my foot. Of course, it would have been better to have seen a doctor but I didn’t have enough time left in Sweden to be able to get an appointment so this will have to do for now. Sadly, my foot has not improved as much as I had hoped and even alternative training is complicated. Therefore, today I made the decision to change my application from full marathon to the 10k. This was not an easy decision, I’m a very stubborn person and I always want to follow up all my decisions and reach my goals. However, I feel that persistence is not leading anywhere now and I have to see reason and not push my body further than it can recover. The planning for the fundraising birthday-event is still underway and if I can get fit for a 10k in my current situation it would indeed be a great achievement and I have to be pleased with that. Sometimes it is harder not to run than actually running.