C2S: Am I In or am I Out?

An interesting week so far, no doubt about it.

In fact this is likely to turn into one of those things you tell your grandkids about. Real grandkids I mean, not illegitimate sprog. I wouldn't waste it on them.

"Kids, have I ever told you about the first time I tried to do the City to Surf? The trouble I had ...?"

So this is what happened. After speaking to some friends about it I finally went to a physio on Tuesday night.

As I'd already suspected, he confirmed it was strained and not torn, which was good news. He gave it a solid rub down - they hurt more than I remember - and gave me his advice. It was as follows:
(i) give it heat, not ice now
(ii) I'm still a chance to make it to the City to Surf
(iii) do some running between now and then - a little on Tuesday night and a little longer (half an hour) on Wednesday night, and don't be afraid to stop and stretch if need be
(iv) come back on Thursday and we'll see where it's at

Now then, parts (i), (ii) and (iv) were easy enough to deal with, but there were some complications with part (iii).

I was at the physio between getting home from work and heading straight out to dinner with dad. I was still in work clothes, and we were off to have Chinese BBQ for dinner, a decent feed.

I headed out for dinner, filled up, had a coffee with dad, and then headed home. I got home at 9:45 still very full from dinner but had to go for a run - I had to.

My physio said that for Tuesday night I should walk five minutes and then jog five minutes, then do it again, and see how I go. Take it easy, only jogging: not running.

So I did that and surprisingly felt better and more comfortable jogging than walking. I finished the little jog/walk quite confident and happy with myself.

The calf felt a bit tight on Wednesday morning but not too bad. I had a heat pack on it all Tuesday night to loosen it a bit.

Then Wednesday night happened.

I ran where I was always going to run: my old 6.6km course which usually took me about 33 minutes.

It went well for quite a while. Running on a gentle slope along Rosalie Park was not a problem (I thought it might be), and the short hills on Derby Road were OK also.

I got to the end of Derby Road, where I turn back towards Rokeby Road and home, and felt it tighten considerably, so I stopped. It had hurt before but not too badly. I stretched it out, as advised, and walked it for a while on Hamersley Road.

I jogged again a few minutes later and stopped quickly as it soon got back to being painful.

After walking a bit longer, I started up again, along Rokeby Road. It felt sore but manageable. As I was jogging I actually thought to myself "I'm about a 20% chance of doing this on Sunday, which isn't too bad"

I turned the corner for the run home along Bagot Road. It got a bit tighter but still OK.

Then, crossing a road, a massive sharp pain suddenly shot through my lower leg. Just below the calf and above the tendon. I let out an audible yelp (that is to say, I heard it myself over my iPod, which was pretty loud).

I hobbled back to my house, thankfully not too far away, furious.

I'm actually surprised at how gutted I am by this, which will surely rule me out of the City to Surf.

My reaction surprised me because it shows me exactly how competitive I am, and how much I was looking forward to this. I was really champing at the bit to run, probably more than I realised.

I still have to apply heat to it tonight and go to the physio tomorrow, but it seems at this stage like it's a fait accompli, and that I can't run the 12km to the beach. I hope it's not torn, and doesn't rule me out of any cricket.