"I am afraid that you are not going to be able to run the London Marathon"
I looked over at the words coming from the doctors mouth and my face paled.
I had to train for 120 weeks and only had another 5 to go and I was there. That really hurts, but thats life, sometimes things don't work out the way you hope.
The MRI scan showed up a couple of areas of fluid in the sheath of the achilles tendon. Every time I ran for more then 20 minutes it would rub inside the sheath against the achilles and become painfully inflamed and forming the dreaded "crepitis" a crunching sound in felt when the heel is flexed.
The stupid thing about this is that it all started with a blister on my other foot. Having not had a single one for nearly 2 years I completed a 20 mile run to find a huge blister had developed due to the bunching of the sock.
It happend just before heading to Ethiopia and because I was away in the home of distance running I did more training then I would or should have done had I been in the UK. At that stage the problem was just about manageable and I booked an appointment with the physio which resulted in a cortisone injection to calm the problem.
Problem fixed and I jumped back into the running... too much too soon. The problem came back in a mild form and after a week of cross training I eased cautiously back into the running. Again the problem raised it ugly head and back to the aqua jogging I went. This happend for a third time, 3 days into the running program and I ended back at square one.
Those few weeks were torture. Would I be able to run in London? Have I done enough training even if I can? Will we be able to sort out the visa for Mengsitu my Ethiopian friend? Will we be able to arrange permission from the BBC to film the race and will the London Marathon agree to accept his entry.
Now that I am out for 4 - 6 weeks of proper training which will include some very easy running and cross training, these troublesome questions have become irrelevant.
Was I going to qualify even if I had stayed injury free? The answer to that it no way. For the last year of the project my aim has been to run under 2:30 and the classification as an elite marathon runner.
On a personal level not being able to run in London is hugely disappointing as so much of my efforts were directed to this race in my home town. I might be out of London and "The Road to Beijing" title might be irrelevant but the project has strangely evolved and taken a turn towards the documentary that I wanted to produce in the first place. At the time I did not have the funds or contacts to make it happen, but now this further setback could prove to be just the necessary change in direction the documentary needed.
At this time I can't go into too much detail as a few things need to be arranged but I can tell you that the documentary will be following two more stories in addition to Mengsitu and my own and will most likely be culminating at the Amsterdam Marathon in October 2008.
Finally thanks very much from everyone that has written to me. I will try to get back to as many of you as I can as it is really appreciated
Off to get in the pool for another hour of aqua jogging. For those of you that think running is boring the times that by ten and you will have some idea about aqua jogging.
My PC has a virus and is away being fixed but will endevour to update the website as soon as I can.
Thanks
Alex
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Saturday, 5 January 2008
THE BIGGEST DANGER TO RUNNERS - REVISED FOR THE 3RD TIME
This is an article from the New York Times that was sent to me by Joel Patenaude about the training camp that I would have been staying in. It is pretty frightening to think that if I had arranged to travel a few days earlier then I would have been caught up in the violence.
Lornah Kiplagat’s afternoon run is out of the question. Even though her training center in Iten, Kenya, is only a mile from her house, the short trip is more daunting than any race.
Daily life in her village 18 miles outside the city of Eldoret, which has been battered by bloody violence in the past week, is punctuated by the sound of gunfire. Every day brings more roadblocks of blazing tires soaked in gasoline. Vigilante groups, wielding knives and automatic weapons, are constantly on patrol.
“It’s very tough to go running,” said Toby Tanser, a member of the New York Road Runners board of directors who is training with Kiplagat, the half-marathon world record holder. “Because if one of the vigilantes catch you, they want to know what you’re doing just running when the country is at war. And the mobs are always trying to recruit anyone who is healthy.”
The violence that has torn across Kenya since the disputed presidential election last Sunday has reached some of the nation’s top athletes.
With communications worsening on a daily basis — people are unable to purchase mobile phone credit — some of running’s biggest names remain unaccounted for.
Several calls to the home of the former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat went unanswered, and Lisa Buster, the agent for the marathon world champion Catherine Ndereba, said that a text message on Friday was the first time she had heard from Ndereba in several days. Ndereba’s message to Buster said that she was safe.
Still, many athletes have committed themselves to continue training. Tanser said that one marathoner he knows completes his daily hour-and-a-half runs by staying within a five-minute radius of his house.
Kiplagat, who is preparing for the Dubai marathon Jan. 18, has had to limit herself to a single run around 5:30 a.m. Afterward, she spends the rest of the day indoors at the High Altitude Training Center, which she operates with her husband and coach, Pieter Langerhorst.
This week, she also took responsibility for the safety of 15 visiting athletes from Ireland and the Netherlands. In cooperation with the Dutch embassy in Nairobi, she orchestrated an evacuation Wednesday.
“We got heavily armed police escorts to take them to the Eldoret airport, which is about 25 miles from here,” Langerhorst said in a telephone interview from the couple’s home Thursday.
“From there we had a charter flight to Nairobi. They slept in Nairobi and this morning took a KLM flight to Amsterdam.”
The next day the camp was in danger of being torched. “There was a house next door that the mob wanted to burn,” Tanser said. “And we were taking things out of one side of the camp to another because the flames climbed so high. They’ll burn any house that happens to belong to someone of the wrong tribe.”
The only people left at the training center and Langerhorst’s home are Langerhorst; Kiplagat; Tanser; Hilda Kibet, the New York City half-marathon champion; and a dozen or so refugees. Five girls ages 3 to 12 are also staying in the house. It is because of them that Tanser has decided to stay in Kenya.
“They witnessed people being sliced to death and they need people here to cheer them up and take care of them,” he said. “For children to see people cut up with knives, it’s a horrible situation. So we stay up with them, playing the guitar and singing.”
Athletes have not been spared from the violence. Last Saturday, the marathon world champion Luke Kibet walked to downtown Eldoret from his home about two miles away. He was trying to buy food. “But when I arrived with two of my friends,” he said, “there were people shooting in the air.”
In the Rift Valley in the far west of Kenya, the conflict has largely broken down along tribal lines. The Kikuyu support President Mwai Kibaki, who was declared the winner of last week’s election by a narrow margin despite evidence of ballot rigging. The Kalenjin, of which Kibet is a member, and Luo back Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate who has said he was robbed of the presidency.
So when Kibet headed into town, he knew that any run-ins with the Kikuyu would be incendiary.
“I saw a big group of Kikuyu coming towards us on the street,” he said. “And suddenly I was on the floor, trying to stay awake.”
Kibet had been struck in the back of the head with a stone. His friends rushed him to a hospital, where he was treated for a deep flesh wound and a concussion. Doctors told him he would be unable to train for three weeks.
Three hours later, Lucas Sang, a middle-distance runner who competed in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics as part of Kenya’s 4x400-meter relay team, was hacked to death. Kibet said he believed it was the same group that assaulted him. Reliable information is sparse, and Kibet said it took two days of searching before he discovered Sang’s fate. Sang’s funeral will be in Eldoret on Saturday.
But Kibet says he has no plans to leave. “Some days it’s not dangerous and some days it is,” he said. “But I’m staying here to recover and I want to start training again.”
Other athletes who had made plans to compete abroad long before the election barely managed to escape. The marathoners Simon Wangai and Peter Muthuma, who are competing this weekend at a marathon in Xiamen, China, traveled to Nairobi separately from the Ngong region in central Kenya. Rioting has been especially intense on the outskirts of Nairobi. Now the police have blocked all traffic into the city.
“I had to walk the last five kilometers into Nairobi,” Wangai said in a telephone interview from Xiamen. “I was very frightened that I would be robbed or hurt by the mob because I was carrying my bags.”
Muthuma had to do the same, but he and Wangai said they still planned to return to Kenya on Tuesday.
Despite the violence, Kiplagat and Tanser still make their way to the training camp through the bush. Members of militia groups line the main roads. “It’s a waiting game,” Tanser said. “We just watch news all the time, but there’s no information around.”
For the time being, the afternoon runs are staying off the schedule
Lornah Kiplagat’s afternoon run is out of the question. Even though her training center in Iten, Kenya, is only a mile from her house, the short trip is more daunting than any race.
Daily life in her village 18 miles outside the city of Eldoret, which has been battered by bloody violence in the past week, is punctuated by the sound of gunfire. Every day brings more roadblocks of blazing tires soaked in gasoline. Vigilante groups, wielding knives and automatic weapons, are constantly on patrol.
“It’s very tough to go running,” said Toby Tanser, a member of the New York Road Runners board of directors who is training with Kiplagat, the half-marathon world record holder. “Because if one of the vigilantes catch you, they want to know what you’re doing just running when the country is at war. And the mobs are always trying to recruit anyone who is healthy.”
The violence that has torn across Kenya since the disputed presidential election last Sunday has reached some of the nation’s top athletes.
With communications worsening on a daily basis — people are unable to purchase mobile phone credit — some of running’s biggest names remain unaccounted for.
Several calls to the home of the former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat went unanswered, and Lisa Buster, the agent for the marathon world champion Catherine Ndereba, said that a text message on Friday was the first time she had heard from Ndereba in several days. Ndereba’s message to Buster said that she was safe.
Still, many athletes have committed themselves to continue training. Tanser said that one marathoner he knows completes his daily hour-and-a-half runs by staying within a five-minute radius of his house.
Kiplagat, who is preparing for the Dubai marathon Jan. 18, has had to limit herself to a single run around 5:30 a.m. Afterward, she spends the rest of the day indoors at the High Altitude Training Center, which she operates with her husband and coach, Pieter Langerhorst.
This week, she also took responsibility for the safety of 15 visiting athletes from Ireland and the Netherlands. In cooperation with the Dutch embassy in Nairobi, she orchestrated an evacuation Wednesday.
“We got heavily armed police escorts to take them to the Eldoret airport, which is about 25 miles from here,” Langerhorst said in a telephone interview from the couple’s home Thursday.
“From there we had a charter flight to Nairobi. They slept in Nairobi and this morning took a KLM flight to Amsterdam.”
The next day the camp was in danger of being torched. “There was a house next door that the mob wanted to burn,” Tanser said. “And we were taking things out of one side of the camp to another because the flames climbed so high. They’ll burn any house that happens to belong to someone of the wrong tribe.”
The only people left at the training center and Langerhorst’s home are Langerhorst; Kiplagat; Tanser; Hilda Kibet, the New York City half-marathon champion; and a dozen or so refugees. Five girls ages 3 to 12 are also staying in the house. It is because of them that Tanser has decided to stay in Kenya.
“They witnessed people being sliced to death and they need people here to cheer them up and take care of them,” he said. “For children to see people cut up with knives, it’s a horrible situation. So we stay up with them, playing the guitar and singing.”
Athletes have not been spared from the violence. Last Saturday, the marathon world champion Luke Kibet walked to downtown Eldoret from his home about two miles away. He was trying to buy food. “But when I arrived with two of my friends,” he said, “there were people shooting in the air.”
In the Rift Valley in the far west of Kenya, the conflict has largely broken down along tribal lines. The Kikuyu support President Mwai Kibaki, who was declared the winner of last week’s election by a narrow margin despite evidence of ballot rigging. The Kalenjin, of which Kibet is a member, and Luo back Raila Odinga, the opposition candidate who has said he was robbed of the presidency.
So when Kibet headed into town, he knew that any run-ins with the Kikuyu would be incendiary.
“I saw a big group of Kikuyu coming towards us on the street,” he said. “And suddenly I was on the floor, trying to stay awake.”
Kibet had been struck in the back of the head with a stone. His friends rushed him to a hospital, where he was treated for a deep flesh wound and a concussion. Doctors told him he would be unable to train for three weeks.
Three hours later, Lucas Sang, a middle-distance runner who competed in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics as part of Kenya’s 4x400-meter relay team, was hacked to death. Kibet said he believed it was the same group that assaulted him. Reliable information is sparse, and Kibet said it took two days of searching before he discovered Sang’s fate. Sang’s funeral will be in Eldoret on Saturday.
But Kibet says he has no plans to leave. “Some days it’s not dangerous and some days it is,” he said. “But I’m staying here to recover and I want to start training again.”
Other athletes who had made plans to compete abroad long before the election barely managed to escape. The marathoners Simon Wangai and Peter Muthuma, who are competing this weekend at a marathon in Xiamen, China, traveled to Nairobi separately from the Ngong region in central Kenya. Rioting has been especially intense on the outskirts of Nairobi. Now the police have blocked all traffic into the city.
“I had to walk the last five kilometers into Nairobi,” Wangai said in a telephone interview from Xiamen. “I was very frightened that I would be robbed or hurt by the mob because I was carrying my bags.”
Muthuma had to do the same, but he and Wangai said they still planned to return to Kenya on Tuesday.
Despite the violence, Kiplagat and Tanser still make their way to the training camp through the bush. Members of militia groups line the main roads. “It’s a waiting game,” Tanser said. “We just watch news all the time, but there’s no information around.”
For the time being, the afternoon runs are staying off the schedule
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