I probably shouldn’t have run this race 😥
A little over a week ago I got up early and went for a run before work. But I had to cut it short after only 5km’s as I experienced a sharp pain in my leg and had to hobble my way home. The next day at work my leg would ache every time I stood up. This was not looking good.
I phoned my sports massage therapist and made the earliest appointment I could: Sunday afternoon. He had a look at my leg, we chatted about the symptoms and surrounding aches and pains, but he could not give me a definitive answer as to what was causing the pain 😦 The plan was then to TAKE IT EASY for the week. I had to head out for 2 x run/walk sessions, the first one being just 20 mins and the second one being 40 minutes. Both of them brought about absolutely zero pain!
Green light to race – provided I don’t push it with any PB hopes in mind. Fine.
Up bright and early on Friday morning after a fabulously quiet and early night on Thursday, I headed off to the Palm Mono Rail to catch the metro across to Aquaventure to get to the start of the race.
Chilly start to the morning
Palm monorail 🙂
I met up with a few of the other optimalFITNESS runners around and we all lined up for the start together, to then head out at our own pace for the race…. mine being ‘slow’!
Start line…
Gu-rilla getting everyone warmed up
optimalFITNESS team 🙂
1000 runners, ready to take on the Palm!
I didn’t have anything other than feel to go on so I couldn’t accurately judge my pace – I just went at what felt like ‘slow’. By about 3km’s I was feeling great – no pains in the leg – so decided to pick up the pace ever-so-slightly. And by 5km’s that was a fool thing to have done 😦 I felt the niggle come on and by about 5.5km’s I stopped to walk for a bit. Then ran for a bit and was then forced to walk more by the time I reached 7km’s… I was SORE!
I contemplated pulling out of the race (I had told myself that if I got sore I would do so) but if you’re a runner out there reading this, you know how hard it is to do that! I just could not bring myself to sit out and wait for an ambulance to come fetch me and drive me the last 3 km’s back to the start/finish line… I would cross it, no matter how long it took, or how slow I had to go. But I would attempt a little hobble run as and when I could. So the last 3 km’s were very much walk/run, until the last few hundred meters that I ran to cross the finish line.

I don’t deserve this…
And then really felt the pain!
I could not put any pressure on my leg and walking was not really an option except for completely limping. NOT HAPPY!
So while the race was something new with these beautiful views of the Dubai skyline, it is a race that I really should not have done and I know that, but it’s just so hard to make that decision to not run… I now have to find out what’s causing this pain and hope that my chances at running RAK in 3 week’s time have not been ruined 😥
Gotta look carefully for this skyline… Burj Khalifa in the background
Burj al Arab
I went home after the race, had a lovely bubble bath and then lay on my bed with my feet in the air, while getting some study reading done… at least a good book and a cat cuddling me are two ways to put a smile on my face!

Unhappy Hazy 😦
I’ll be back with updates on my leg’s progress… fingers crossed for me please!