o plan B
Unfortunately, the injury didn’t just disappear. I had no plan B, but I was determined to do The Great Wall Marathon, cost what it may.
On 21st April, I ran for the first time that year, which was tough going even though I only ran five kilometres. Within the next week and a half, I had increased in my distance to 24 kilometres. It was still not easy and took a long time. But it boosted my self-confidence to be able to run that far.
I went for a long run 13 days before the marathon, but after 13 kilometres my heel started to hurt again. I didn’t want to challenge fate, so I went home and decided not to run one more metre until the big day. I had hope, but I was still seriously worried.
A fateful day
As I was standing at the start, it felt as though I was facing a possible death
sentence. Perhaps this would be the year that I fell and had to drop out of the marathon that meant so much to
me? My heel injury was the crux of the matter. The fact that I had not trained enough was secondary. This day would be a veritable ordeal.
My heel was painful from the first step and continued to be so throughout the 42.195 kilometres. But it wasn’t unbearable. With a time of 7:27:52, I ran across the finishing line. It was a great victory for me to get through the run, considering the conditions I had faced beforehand. This year’s event had been successfully completed, but the heel was still not in order.
