Sunday 30th October 2022
Three weeks after my Lee Valley Run The River 10k, I was back at the start line at the Hertfordshire Half Marathon. No, I still haven’t restored my pre-May 2022 fitness level yet before twisting my knee while hiking at the West Highland Way. And no, I didn’t build up the distance and time for the preparation of this Half Marathon hence my fitness has not improved. Since I signed up this event back in March this year and the cut off time is 3 hours, I thought I might just go ahead and hopefully to finish within the cut off time.
The update of my left knee is that during training run whether it is on the treadmill or on the road / trail, I don’t need to wear the knee guard anymore. But when it comes to races, I just feel more protective and confident if I wear my knee guard.
It was a wet and quite a windy morning. By “quite windy”, I actually mean scaffolding-smashing and tree branches falling gusts of wind. It was pouring with rain in the 1st 3 miles (probably 4 miles for my sister Fidelia as she runs faster than me and she is injury free). Between mile 4 and mile 8, we were sharing a dual carriage road which has a lot of up and down hills (see the elevation diagram here). The wind was pushing me from behind and I felt I was running very fast until I turned around near mile 6. Payback time was from mile 6 to mile 8 where the wind was blowing right to my face and I felt I was running backward. One by one the hills seemed to get harder, longer and steeper. It took me a much longer time to reach the mile 8 signage. There was another big climb in mile 11 which is the last big hill and no more downhill as the Knebworth House where the start and finish is on the high ground. I crawled over to the finish line in 2:42’35”. This was by far my slowest half marathon. With my declining pace, I am now better at writing than at running !!
However, on the brighter side, my dodgy left knee survived without giving me too much trouble just a little discomfort from my posterior cruciate ligament. The knee guard had really given me the protection I needed even though I felt very restricted in my stride. I think I will continue to wear my knee guard for events until I am 100% confident that I can run in races without it.
