Beware the wounded warrior

Cricket lovers of a certain age will remember Gordon Greenidge very well. He was part of the invincible West Indies teams of the 80's and was a brutal opening batsman. However he always seemed to be injured. Sometimes he struggled to even limp to the crease because of a wrecked knee but his batting appeared to improve commensurate with the pain he was enduring. To see him limp out to bat was an almost certain guarantee that he would thrash a century off his good leg. What has this got to do with running you may well ask. Very little I guess but an example closer to home is Martin Pitts who has a permanent limp when running yet the more pronounced the limp the faster he appears to run.
In recent years I've had loads of injuries & illnesses and have often made a last minute decision to race even though I probably shouldn't - just ask Claudie! The Bourton 10km last Sunday was one such occasion. In my previous post I described the state of my back; that lingered all week. Then on the Thursday I moved from pain killers to paracetemol as I had another of my irregular bouts of hot sweats, thumping headaches, sore throats and battered body syndrome. I felt awful. However, you don't miss Bourton lightly as it's the fastest 10km around so I lined up ...
I went off at a decent pace (3.12, 3.10, 3.08 k's) as I wanted to get in and work with a group - too often I start easily and end up chasing throughout the race, which is hard graft. Legs felt great and the group worked really well together to the extent that we picked off the remnants from the group ahead, incl Dennis Walmsley, and by 4km had closed right up on Adrian Williams who was coming out the back door of his pack. I knew I was over extending though and just before 5km (16.21) I started to feel light headed. The second half was purgatory but I held on, thanks in part to good support on the course (including the pictured Justin & Tony), nearly throwing up in the funnel, and beat last year's time by over a minute with 33:36, also beating the the fastest V50 time in the country this year by 36 seconds. What excites me more is the knowledge that I wasn't feeling too well and I know there's more in the tank. View video of the race here: http://www.eightlane.com/generator.php?search=Video&id=805
Paid the price for my foolishness in running as I was totally washed out for the rest of the day and have felt lousy all week, thus ruining my training plans for the upcoming spring road races. Worth it though.
Club performances were slightly disappointing but there is no doubt that one day soon Cirencester are going to turn up a full strength squad and surprise the big clubs. We were second at Bourton to Cheltenham but should have won the team prize. What odds next year on Chris winning the race, Adrian getting a place and Cirencester winning the team race? You read it here first.