I’d
received a last minute invite to the race through my friend and GB team-mate,
Jo Zakrzewski. With only two weeks’
notice it was never going to be a goal race with a fast time, but I was hoping
to use it as a good, solid training run.
I was really excited about my first visit to Poland and catching up with
Jo again.
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| With my friend Jo |
On
arrival at Krakow airport it took a while to locate my lift to the hotel, but I
eventually found it and travelled with two men who had run the Boston marathon the
week before. The elite athletes’ hotel
was the Novotel, a great location within walking distance of the Vistula River,
the Wawel Royal Castle and the centre of Krakow. The race was applying for an IAAF Bronze
label and, therefore, needed to fulfil certain criteria, including an elite
field with athletes of a certain calibre from several different countries. Consequently there were athletes from Kenya,
Ethiopia, Japan, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, Portugal and, of course, Jo and I
from the UK. Sadly Jo was unable to run
due to injury, but was there as an ambassador to try and help the race
organisers gain their Bronze label. The
hotel was very nice and the food was excellent – a buffet at every meal where
we could just eat as much as we liked.
It still never ceases to amaze me how much the African runners eat!
I’d
arrived before Jo on the Friday, so I took myself off for a little sightseeing
wander around the centre of Krakow. It’s
a beautiful city – the second largest and one of the oldest cities in
Poland. The old town is now a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
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| St. Mary's Basilica |
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| The main square (Rynek Gowny) - one of the largest Medieval squares in Europe |
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| The Wawel Royal Castle & Vistula River (left) and Barbican (right) |
Saturday
was mainly taken up with race preparation – a photo shoot for all the elite
athletes near the river / castle; a ‘presentation of elite athletes’ on a stage
at the race expo; a technical meeting; preparation of drinks bottles etc.
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| Elite athletes 'photo shoot' |
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| Presentation of the elite athletes at the race expo. |
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| Plenty of food and drink in the elite athletes' tent! |
Race
day dawned another beautiful sunny day and I made my way onto to the coach that
was to transport the elite athletes all of about 5 minutes to the start area in
the main square! We had a dedicated
marquee with portaloos, deck chairs, food and drink and massage areas!
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| Arriving at the start area |
I
did some easy jogging to warm up and to test my hamstring. In the week prior to the race my hamstring had
been feeling particularly tight, but I was confident that several days rest and
plenty of massage during the week would be enough to see me through the
race.
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| Making our way to the start |
We
lined up at the start and after what seemed like an age we were off – making
our way out of the square and through the streets of Krakow.
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| Ready for the off |
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| Looking less than happy in the medical tent |
Sadly, my journey didn’t last very long at
all. Only 500 metres into the race my
hamstring suddenly gave a sharp twinge and although I tried to carry I knew it
wasn’t going to let me. The difficulty
now was that I was in the middle of the road, in tears, and in danger of being
swallowed up and mown down by thousands of runners behind me! I eventually managed to extricate myself and
get to the barriers at the side and squeeze through a small gap to get
out! There was a policeman at the side
of the route, but I don’t think he really knew what to do with a blubbering English
lady who couldn’t speak his language!
So, as I was fairly close to the start / finish area, I hobbled back
there and got some treatment in the medical tent.
I
made a sobbing phone call to Jo to let her know what had happened as she was
out on the course with my camera, ready to cheer me on, and I thought she’d be
wondering where I’d got to! She came straight
back to me and was really great at looking after me – thank you Jo. Not only did I feel I’d denied her the chance
to watch the race, but I also felt I’d let both Jo and Darek (the elite athlete
organiser) down by not finishing. I know
that you have no control over when an injury strikes, but I still felt very
bad. I hung around at the finish area,
periodically getting ice for my leg, and eventually watching the winners come
in. I felt really down – I hadn’t gone
there to only run 500m – but I was also conscious that Jo must also be feeling
low about not running and so tried not to let my feelings show too much (though
I’m not sure I succeeded).
I
tried to put the race behind me and set about enjoying the remainder of the
weekend – sampling the local vodka, cheeses and bread; more sightseeing;
souvenir shopping and visiting one of Jo’s friends. A huge thank you Jo for giving me the
opportunity to visit Krakow, for your support and company and for putting up
with me for four days!
Reflecting
on this a week later it was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise that I didn’t push
my body through a marathon, as it appears from a blood test result this week
that all was not quite as it should be.
If I’m honest things hadn’t been great for some weeks. I’d been experiencing very heavy legs in
training, struggling to run at what should have been an easy jog pace and just
not flowing. I’d had three weeks warm
weather training in Portugal in March, which went OK, but even then I was
heavy-legged and unable to run the sort of pace I should have been capable
of.
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| Enjoying training in Portugal |
I’d
gone into those three weeks in Portugal off the back of a niggly calf injury
and I went down with a cold in my first week there, my second cold in three
months, which is unusual for me. I had
one or two decent sessions in Portugal, though, so thought I was just taking
time to regain my fitness after nine weeks off over the winter. Once back in the UK I mentioned all this to
my physio, who identified a potential issue due to the way my muscles generally
felt “solid” and “over-baked” (that was his technical term!), but with no
specific tightness. He recommended a
blood test which, sure enough, shows certain levels aren’t quite right,
possibly pointing to a post-viral issue from the colds I’d had. My hamstring has been diagnosed as a neural
issue resulting from a lot of tightness and pelvis imbalance, rather than a
tear, which is good news. So now I know
what I’m dealing with I can start to put things right in all areas, fingers
crossed!
