First HM Pain

Hi

I did the Birmingham Half Marathon yesterday, my first one in 2 hrs 35 mins. Not a great time but I only got to 8 miles in training 6 weeks before picking up a groin injury which meant I only really did a couple of shorter runs in the last 6 weeks before the event. The groin was fine and I felt mostly ok although a little unsure of the trainers I had.

I was going well up until mile 9 when i started to feel a sharp pain down my right hip and in my right glute. As I took each stride I began to feel it really hurting and tried to run it off. Then I developed a sore left hamstring which get worse and I basically ended up walking the last couple of miles. All the way through from the beginning of the race I noticed my toes hurt as my foot pushed off, and this got worse as the race went on, to the point where the soul of my foot was really sore and my achilles also really hurt at the end.

What do you think? Is it because I'd gone further then I had before? I was going really well until mile 9. Or is it something else?

Thanks in Advance

Lack of training, lack of base miles, and lack of long runs.

I reckon it's no coincidence that you got up to 8 miles in training, and you also got up to 8 miles in the HM, then by 9 miles things started to hurt. Basically you were underprepared and pretty much an injury waiting to happen. That's not in any way a criticism btw, just a statement of fact. Congratulations on completing your first half in less than ideal circumstances and look at it this way - if you can train more consistently and injury free for your next one, you'll likely smash your PB by a massive amount!

The foot thing could just be down to trainers you're not completely happy with, but sore toes and sole of foot progressing to achilles pain sounds like tight muscles under there - you can ease this off by rolling your feet over a tennis ball (or golf ball if you're a masochist!) and paying particular attention to the tender/tight spots. Good idea to do this for a few minutes every day as it helps keep things loosened off. Also think about investing £20 in a foam roller - they're great for kneading out muscles and getting rid of aches and pains.

yeah you were totally un prepared, and a bit daft for attempting it really!

anyway the rest of your aches and pains are down to your body compensating for the pain in your hip ie your body knew there was somethiing wrong and tried to protect itself by lessening the load of it to stop it from damaging further, therefore the other parts of your body you said are painful are just sore from having to work twice as hard to protect the injury you picked up.

also running in unfamilar shoes isnt a good idea either....

get some rest