Sunday morning dawned, cool, and blustery. Perfect weather for running the Glasgow Great Womens 10k.
Thousands of women converged on Ballahouston Park on the south side of Glasgow, to take part in what has become a massive event over the years. Despite all the preparation, I felt quite jittery before the start, but as soon as I started the run, I began to relax, and enjoy the extraordinary experience of running with around 7,000 other women. I tried to maintain a steady pace, keeping a little energy in reserve for the finish line (even those of us with a very small ego want to end with a modest flourish!) It felt a long way, and I inwardly cheered at the sight of the pipers heralding each kilometre mark. I crossed the line in 1hour and 6 minutes, which I was very happy with.
I came over the finish to the welcome sight of Derek and the boys cheering me on, and rushed over for a big hug. Isaac said I looked 'very unlikely' coming over the finish line, and Derek said I looked exhausted (!), Jacob just gave me a big huge hug, and despite looking pretty awful, with hair scraped back, no make up, and a red face, I felt brilliant.
Thank you so much to those generous readers who donated to my Just Giving page to help raise funds for my chosen charity, Funding Neuro, I am so grateful to you. And to all the kind souls who left encouraging comments on my previous post, thank you, thank you.
There is a post-script to the tale...
Whilst running the 10k, I was aware of pain in my right foot, which my adrenalin and I decided to ignore- I wasn't stopping for anything. However, when I reached home and took my trainers off, my foot began to swell, and weight bearing became very difficult. Yesterday morning I took myself up to the local Minor Injuries Unit, and it turns out that I had unwittingly run 10 kilometres on a stress fracture. I had probably fractured it sometime in the preceding week and hadn't realised, and then running the 10k aggravated it. So I am now wearing huge black air cast boot and will be for the next 4-5 weeks. I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry, but in the meantime I am plodding around lop-sidedly, trying to stay positive, knowing that I wont be able to run again until the summer time. It will be like starting all over again. And, who knows, maybe that's no bad thing.
