The Injury Bench - Part Two

After successfully completing my first half marathon at Henley, I did what I always do and stopped running for a bit.  I don't know why I do it, every time without fail!!  It's amazing how quickly you lose fitness considering how long it takes to build it up!

Anyway, I had entered the Reading Half Marathon in March 2008, so in the new year I dusted the trainers back off and started plodding again.  I ran the Reading Half with Sarah, and at times Sui too (she hadn't officially entered but she popped up here and there to run with us!) in a PB time somehow, despite not nearly enough training.  After that I entered a couple of local 10k runs (Shinfield and Woodley) to give me a target so that I wouldn't just grind to a total halt again.  After running both of those races, I developed pain in my right hip, that no amount of different stretching would eliminate.  I spent a lot of time limping and wincing, and so decided to use the private healthcare that is provided through work to get it sorted.

And so I found myself seeing a physio in Beech Hill.  Little did I realise that I would be asked to strip to my underwear and walk around so that the physio could see how all my joints looked, but after the tests I had gone through with the cardiac and kidney specialists I don't know why I was surprised.  I think I forgot to mention before that an ultrasound of the heart involves obviously being topless and smothered in gel, and kidney specialists also seem to require you in your underwear for some reason that I never quite fathomed!  Anyway, luckily I had been sort of prepared for being seen in my underwear with the physio (it's gonna happen for a groin strain isn't it), but I wasn't quite prepared for what happened next - Acupunture.

At this point it is worth mentioning that I am a bit of a needle-phobe.  I don't go faint or anything like that, I just have a bit of a panic in the run-up to actually being jabbed.  I think it stemmed from once having a blood test the day before an operation as a teenager when I came over a bit funny.  The nurse asked if I was OK and did I want some water, to which I replied yes please, so she walked away AND LEFT THE NEEDLE IN MY ARM to get me a glass of water.  I am not joking.  My Mum was there, she can vouch that this actually happened!  Since then I've not been so keen on needles!

So when I found myself lying there with the realisation that the physio was about to stick pins in me, I got that familiar feeling of panic.  Honestly, if I had known she was going to do it, I don't think I would have gone.  However, I am a total convert.  It didn't hurt (was a bit itchy maybe) and it worked.  I mean, I also had an orthotic to put in my shoe as it turns out my right leg is shorter than my left (it's also my right side that doesn't have a kidney, which my doctor thinks is 'interesting'), but I had immediate results after the acupuncture and found it strangely relaxing.

And so after another couple of months on the injury bench, I was back running again.  I knew I wouldn't get my fitness levels back up enough to be able to run any longer races in the Autumn, so I focussed my efforts on races in 2009.