The Missing Year

Before I lose track I thought I would put down the saga of my "running life" since the Mt WIlson to Bilpin event in August last year. The big gap in this blog from May 10th 2009 till April 2010 was created by staring work on the huge Desalination Project. I did manage to run the King of the Mountain 2.30, C2S 56.30, Willy to Billy 2.48.
It was at the Willy to Billy that I hit a big hurdle. Flying down the hill to the bridge I caught up with two guys running together. Suddenly one of them collapsed right in front of me. I jumped over him but I landed in a ditch an "crunched" my ankle. It hurt. I hobbled on to the finish but I knew it was bad.
That was the end of running for at least a month and therefore no Sydney marathon. In mid September I was riding my bike around Centennial park to train for the Gong ride. About half an hour after finishing I had terrible back pain, and for the next month I could only hobble around as I let it recover. Was it related to the ankle? I suspect so. Anyway, by late December I had started slow running again.
But then in early Jan I was holidaying with the family at Bendalong. Feeling fine I played touch footy with the kids on the beach. Something went crunch in my right knee and that was that. For the next two months the knee ached terribly and was very tender. I could barely walk on it. I went to a physio, she didn't know what the problem was, I went to the GP who arranged an X-ray and declared I have arthritis and must stop running, then I saw a knee specialist who said that I had bruised a fat pad behind the knee cap and that the best thing for it was slow running.
To keep my fitness up i began swimming each day and swam in the Warriewood Swim,Palm Bach to Whale Beach Swim, The Bondi Classic, and the Long Bay to Little Bay.
By coincidence my daughter Honor had begun the Couch to 5k, and so I started running with her at about 6.5min/km. Gradually we built up the number of k's until she could run 5k. Something I never thought i would see.
Anyway now 10 months after twisting my ankle I think I can call myself injury free and back to close to full fitness.
By the way, the desalination plant came up to full speed this week.