Stressing out

[posted by Neil]

It's fair to say the last week hasn't exactly gone to plan.  After a good weekend's training in the Brecon Beacons & mid-Wales and a couple of encouraging run/"hot yoga" combos (for acclimatisation, of sorts) I went for some physio last Tuesday on my left foot which had been niggling me for a while. This went fine, until I stood up off the couch at the end - and promptly collapsed in agony.

The reason was a sharp pain in my left foot, between the roots of the big and second toes. I managed to hobble around for a few hours but by the evening it was no better. Having broken a metatarsal in 2005 I was recognised this as a similar pain which meant, in all probability, a stress fracture - and almost certainly curtains for the Marathon des Sables.

A visit to A&E and an x-ray didn't show anything, although that wasn't surprising since stress fractures often won't show on x-rays, but the pain remained severe - I still couldn't walk the next day, or for a couple more after that. I was convinced there was some bone damage, even if only a hairline crack or something; my theory was that all the tissue around the actual injury had contracted to protect it, which is why I'd been having niggling pains in the foot and why it had suddenly surfaced when the physio had loosened everything. By the weekend I had more or less resigned myself to withdrawing - pretty devastating after having felt in reasonable shape just a week previously.

Strangely, though, there was significant improvement on Monday, and this morning (Tuesday) I could put full pressure through the foot. The worry was that the tissues had simply contracted around the injury again, so I had some more physio this evening expecting the pain to come back, but it didn't. A few hours later, including two on the bike in the gym trying to take my mind off England's pathetic performance against Montenegro, and it's still ok - so while I'm still very much undecided, there's now perhaps a chance that I might, possibly, be able to take part after all.

Having effectively written the race off last week, this leaves me with two main problems. One, I didn't place any of the intended kit orders so am totally lacking in suitable equipment, including rucksack, sleeping bag and seven days' food; and two, I've spent a week feeling sorry for myself and comfort eating, including an 'all you can eat' extravaganza on Friday evening (and I really did) and homemade cheesecake brownies with no-one to share with, with the result that I'm now extremely fat. Still, at least I'll be better insulated if I make it as far as the first overnight camp.

Thank you very much to everyone that has already sponsored us; whether your extremely kind donations are split four ways or three remains to be seen, but I'm feeling at least a little hope tonight that it might be the former.

Neil