Ku-wait is nearly over...

Firstly, a confession.  It has been over eight months since my last marathon.  This is the longest break I have taken between marathons since 2011.

In fairness, I have not completely idled during this sabbatical period.  I have maintained a moderate weekly training regime, averaging around 50 kilometres per week throughout the year, although my middle aged body has shown signs of wear and tear which has forced a few periods without running.  I am also labouring with a perpetually injured left heel, an injury which first struck during the summer of 2017.  I did go so far as visiting a physio in Dubai in early August 2017, who explained that I had damaged the tendons in my heel, most likely as a result of my flat footed running technique and bulky frame.  He recommended various stretching exercises and a period of rest from running, to which I responded by running the 12 kilometres home from the physio session and running five further marathons over the remaining five months of 2017… 

I have never really been one for stretching.  At the end of a run I feel that I have earned a sit down, not a contortion session, although I fear that I am now paying the price for this approach.  The heel injury has also potentially been the root cause of further injuries which have impinged on my 2018 efforts, including a torn hamstring in February (the Bahrain Marathon followed possibly too soon, in March) and painful lower back in September (which I feared was a slipped disc or similar, due to the initial pain, but which subsequently eased allowing a return to light jogging by the end of the month).  Unfortunately, I am grumpy, sluggish and a generally poor performer if I don’t run in the morning and have therefore determined that it is essential for my world order that I shuffle through the pain each morning until at least a few beads of sweat have accumulated on my person (which does not take much given that I am comfortably in the “Overweight” category based on a recent MOT).  In the last few weeks, a drop in the temperature in Dubai has encouraged me to increase my morning efforts to generally a 10 plus kilometre run and, it is against this backdrop, that I feel ready to return to the marathon fray.

If all goes according to plan, Saturday’s Gulf Bank 642 Marathon in Kuwait (642 apparently being the number of muscles in the human body, at least 600 of which of mine have been frayed by too much use and too little care).  I have never been to Kuwait, so will travel with an open mind and anticipate a flat and warm marathon in surroundings not entirely unlike Dubai.  If all goes to plan, it will be the 30^th country in which I have completed a marathon, albeit this relies on the inclusion of Jersey and the Isle of Man as countries (I’m not really sure how they are categorized for these purposes, but the “Country Marathon Club” accept them as separate countries, so this will do for my purpose) and also the inclusion of Greece, where I completed nearly four of the six marathons which would have been required to complete Spartathlon (Athens to Sparta), but still ended up with a “DID NOT FINISH” against my name.  Life can be cruel.  The other potential fly in the ointment (or more appropriately ointment all over the fly) is some flash flooding in Kuwait over the weekend just passed, which has turned various roads into rivers.  It would seem somewhat ironic if two of the three marathon postponements I may experience in my life (the others being Pisa, Italy – ice – and Bahrain – flooding) have been in the generally bone dry Middle East.  Anyway, the week is yet early and I am cautiously optimistic about Saturday’s marathon and the end of my lengthy Ku-wait…