Why strengthening works!

Well at weekend I took a gamble! I decided I needed a run and was allowed entry onto the inaugral Trail Marathon Wales. Taking place in Coed y Brenin National park and sponsored by Salomon I knew that this would be a good event, having done the Rivington Salomon Trail half marathon last year. The past seven months I have been plagued with knee pain, casued by poor biomechanics. I have been working on strengthening my glutes to help my knee and this wouild be a test to see if my hard work was actually working in any way. Debbie kindly offered to acompany me (then I told her we would be leaving at 4am!) whoops! We left Accy at 4.15 and had a clear run to Wales ariving at 7.30. The organisation looked great, I registered and was delighted to find my number had my name on! (Small things! I know!) a fab goody bag too meant I was a happy girl. One aim today, one aim only - get round a tough 26 mile route without my knee giving in. Debates over clothing, what to carry etc and where to direct Debs to go biking were all sorted out. Then I met my fellow 9bar team mate Smiley Denzil! It was great to meet him at long last after letting him down twice by pulling out of his races with my knee injury. There was a great atmosphere at the start as I chatted to some guys from Rossendale and then we set off on the shotgun ( nice touch!)I set off sharpish as usual and settled into my run about 3 miles in. I was struggling with a general feeling of un- fitness and felt today may be a struggle BUT the knee felt ok! The course was a total mixture! Some amazing technical single track which I flew down! So much so I had a few men comment on my gazelle like descending, the training benefits of fell running with a 30kg Malamute strapped to me! Thanks Blizzard. To say the course was tough would be a huge understatement, it was pretty brutal, however having a knee that felt ok was enough to keep me going. I played yoyo with a group of guys for most of the course, they would catch me on the uphills, I would catch them on the downhills. Men do not tend to RUN downhill, they chill out and stick to the same pace. I RUN the downhills and ease off on the ups. My mantra for the day in my head that made me smile "I am sh@t hot on the downhills but just plain sh@t on the uphills." hill training starts this week! The marshalls were friendly and couldn't be more helpful, great gels, cake, jelly babies, drinks were available and I need not have carried my backpack. But cheese and biscuits they did not have and while I munched my Cathedral City I was pleased I had taken it with me. A feeling of de-ja-vu as we ascended a steep singletrack and the realisation that we were going to repeat a very difficult climb was a bit of a low point but then remembering the fab downhill that followed kept me going. As usual wonderful Deb was there to meet me near the finish and ran the last half mile in with me. 4th lady overall 4.22 was my time! Slower than my off road 50k time - to show how hard it was. 59th position overall. A great day out! I will be back next year when I am fit again! The prizes and trophies along with the finishers coasters were all locally produced which was a nice touch and using local companies was a positive thing in my opinion. Also what was great was knowing that the wonderful people at 9 bar had sponsored the event by providing all the finishers with a yummy 9 bar in their goody bag. Thanks to Trail Marathon Wales, Matt Ward, Salomon for a wonderful day out and my fantastic 9 bar sponsors for everything they do for me.