Week 28 had me dealing with the fallout of last week’s milestone run. For a number of days afterwards my foot progressively got worse until the point at which I was no longer able to walk on it. One call to 111 (the UK non emergency helpline) followed by a quick trip to the doctor and I was given some mixed news.

The good news was that despite the pain, it didn’t look like I’d done any real damage. The doctor wasn’t too concerned and prescribed me some pain killers and anti inflammatory pills.

The bad news was that the main cause of the pain related to my flat feet. Essentially the increased strain on my plantar ligament was manifesting due to the longer distances I was running. The reason this is bad news is that technically this doesn’t really ever go away since it’s not like my feet are going to suddenly change shape and develop an arch. He offered a steroid injection to try and help but I felt that was probably a little too drastic….

The long and short of it is that I can continue to train but will have to take more frequent breaks and get better at really trying to warm up and stretch out that part of my foot. It really doesn’t bode well for my overall completion time but I’m focusing on the fact that I can still train and I’m determined to finish the distance at least.

Another discovery this week related to the timing of fuel. Last week I managed almost 8km without slowing down a few hours after lunch whereas this week I started getting heartburn and fatigue around the 3.5km mark running on an empty stomach. The lesson I’m taking from this is that for my longer runs I will have to ensure that I fuel properly around two or three hours beforehand.

11 weeks to go and whilst I’m not exactly panicking, I do have some concerns….