Here comes the FEAR.......

One thing I've learned as I trained for my first marathon is that there's a little voice in the back of your head that never goes away. A little ball of unease in the gut that lingers. A small black cloud that sits on your shoulder and is always there, even though you don't always notice it.

In the words of Ian Brown - "You've got the FEAR"

The fear of injury.

Of course, as a 5k, 10k or half marathon runner, you worry about getting injured, but it's not quite the same. There's not the same emotional involvement in the event, there's often an alternate event that can be switched to if necessary.


But it's different with the marathon. The fear is much greater. And, the closer you get to the day, the fear grows exponentially, as the time left to recover from an injury shrinks  - so the potential impact of any injury also increases.


I thought I was immune.

"I don't get injured" , I said to myself. I've only had 2 injuries in the 5 years since I started running seriously - both of them hamstring strains caused by over sprinting, and that wasn't likely to be a risk during marathon training!
So I was a little cocky, and more so as the training went on and I didn't really pick up and twinges, knocks and strains.

I was INVICIBLE......

.......except I wasn't! Of course I wasn't, and when I hit taper I discovered that the little residual twinge in my glute muscle.from the 21 mile run that I had dismissed was actually an injury.  A painful one, that hampered my running and didn't go away


Cue panic. Cue the FEAR. Cue little men running around in my head shouting "you've messed it up, you'll miss the marathon, you'll let everyone down, you've wasted all that training, you fool!".


After a few days of ignoring it, convincing myself it would get better on it's own, persuading myself the pain was manageable, I finally saw sense. Spoke to Karen, booked an appointment, saw a physio.

His verdict?
"Some stiffness in the glute, a couple of sessions and some rest and stretching and you'll be fine"

Relief washed over me like a flood. The FEAR was banished...for now :-)


Apparently, this is not uncommon according to Karen. The mind and body play strange tricks on you in taper phase especially - you feel like you're losing your fitness, losing your shape, and every twinge is a full blow crisis!
It's normal, and it's natural, and it's mainly in the mind
.

Proving, once again, that the physical side of marathon training is only half the battle.

The rest of it is won inside your head :-)