I've just entered the 2011 St Albans Half Marathon - less than 2 weeks to go!!

Me! Just recovering after the 2010 St Albans Half Marathon

I've got good memories from the handful of races I've done, though I'm nowhere near the winners.  Last year the St Albans Half Marathon was a good event with a time I was pleased with - 1 hour 44 minutes.

I ran it with Collette, a colleague of mine who signed up for the 2011 event some time ago and has been encouraging me to do the same.  At first I'd hesitated as I need to keep some Sundays free (some Kenyan Church friends are visiting) but now I know I can make this on the Sunday in question.

The other reason for doing this is my hand.  For those who have read some previous posts, I tripped over while running in late January and even now, four months later, it still hurts a lot sometimes.  I'm thinking of going back to the Doctor as it ought to have healed by now.  So, what's my injured hand got to do with the St Albans Half Marathon 2011?  I'm finding that cycling is aggravating the injury, not too much but just enough to stop it healing and perhaps the vibration coming through the handlebars is the cause.  So I'm thinking of easing off cycling and concentrating on running in the short term, while my hand heals.  My head tells me to hang up my bike for a couple of months, my heart says "enjoy the summer first".  Of course if something appears to be aggravating an injury, one should give it up but but but.... I'll have one last ride before I do hang my bike up - the plan is Becky and myself to have a mini cycle camping trip away, just for one night.

I need to step up my running over the next week or so as the event is in two weeks time!  I'll need to be mindful of not doing too much and "tapering" in the last week, so I can enter fairly fresh and not worn out.  Three days ago I ran for about 1 hour 20 minutes, yesterday I ran for about one hour, today 45 minutes.  Tomorrow a longer run and then a rest for a day or two.

Right now it's half term and I'm on leave from work, so normal routines are "on hold" for the week.  Running shouldn't be a problem especially before breakfast.