Michelle’s Marathon Madness: Funny Shoes And Overly Polite Squirrels

So there are now 19 weeks before I will be running the LA Marathon, and seeing as just about any running plan out there say you need 16 weeks I’m still in the in the “oh it’ll going to be fine” stage.

By the time there are only 16 weeks left, however, I will obviously change and become super stressed and snappy whenever anyone asks how my training is going (you have been warned…)

But anyway for the moment it’s all good. My runs are getting faster and longer, and apart from still suffering very bravely from my knee injury, I’m managing to stay injury free, something that I’m hoping is going to long continue with my new running Vibram Five Fingers Classic running shoes.

Now I know these look a bit funny (okay very funny), but there’s logic behind my madness in getting a pair, and it’s nothing to do with looks, and all to do with injuries. I have in my running lifetime managed to pull, tear and twist just about every muscle, ligament and tendon in my right leg, and I have to admit I’ve never been too good at practising what I preach in terms of rehabilitation, something I’ve definitely paid for it with these first few weeks of training.

My former strategy, when the longest I ran was 800m, was to spend couple of minutes racing on the track, then hop off and curse a lot at the pain I was in. I’ve come to the conclusion if I want to finish the same day I can’t hop 26.2 miles, and I’m not willing to give up however much anything hurts, so I’m trying my hardest to make sure nothing does, and these Vibrams are going to help me do it

How? Well it’s all down to the benefits of barefoot running (wearing Vibram Five Fingers is as close as you can get to going barefoot without, well going barefoot) which willl not only strengthen my feet, but also my lower legs, as well as making me more responsive and agile when running, and not get caught out by all the lumps and bumps you miss in a good old cushioned pair of trainers.

And this isn’t just marketing spiel from the guys at Vibram. Never one to believe anything that anyone tells me without having 96 independent sources to back it up, I’ve been getting all academic about it and reading some sport science papers on barefoot running with their findings confirming this, proving running barefoot not only decreases the changes of lower limb injuries, but also, as an added bonus, reduces oxygen consumption … and with 26.2 miles to run I think I could probably do with having a bit of oxygen to spare.

So that’s why ladies and gentlemen if you see me out running you’re likely to see me doing it in what looks like a pair of frogs feet…

Which brings me, not very tidily I grant you, onto the subject of animals, and how I seem to have become something of a Doctor Doolite of the running world.

And it all started with cats.

When I first started training for the marathon, I seemed to acquire a cat from every third or fourth house that I ran past which would then run alongside me for about 10 metres.

Then it moved onto dogs which seemed to appear from nowhere in the middle of parks, and would proceed to either trip me over by keep running round my legs or jump up and want to play.

It was then to be the turn of foxes to sprint out across woodland paths first thing in the morning, causing us both to jump out of our skins.

And then from the skies the kites started joining in.

Flying in groups of 3 or 4, these kites have now started to follow me round the park at the bottom of my road. Quite why I’m not sure as I’d presume I’m a little bit too big for them, but one thing I do know is that they’re very distracting – I very nearly ran into a tree last week whilst watching them practising their swooping.

But we’re not finished with kites. We still have squirrels to come. Very polite squirrels in fact, one of which I met last week on my long Sunday run.

Now I’d been getting a bit bored with the route I’d been running for the last few Sundays, so I decided I wanted to take a different route into a bit of woodland which had a fence running off down alongside the pathway. As I came in line with the fence I noticed there was a squirrel sitting on the toplooking like he wanted to go to the tree on the opposite side of the pathway, so being the polite English person I am I slowed down so I didn’t scare him, so he could. He didn’t go anywhere so I thought I’ll just carry on.

So I did.

And he did.

So now we’re both running along, me on the path and him on the top of the fence. However he’s still looking like he wanted to cross, so I slow down again. He turns his head, looks at me in a “Oh so you can’t keep up with the pace” kind of way (and yes squirrels can do that kind of look) and slows down.

So then we speed up again.

Then we slow down again.

And speed up again.

Now we’ve gone a good 250 metres together, and actually reached the end of the pathway, so I give him one last chance and actually tell him he should go first, but being the polite squirrel he was he wouldn’t, so I gave up and went ahead only to discover when I turned around that he watched me for another 5 metres or so before gently climbing down his fence and popping up on the tree on the other side.

If only men in white vans driving near big puddles would be so polite.

Photo by Penningtron