THE FINAL PUSH

Our tough trio is almost at the start line. Can they do it?

They’ve trained hard for months, learning to power up hills and cope with the varied demands of off-road running. Now it’s crunch time for our three Project Trail trainees – their big race, the Bath Hilly Half, will have taken place by the time you read this and you can find out how they got on next issue. We caught up with them just before the event to see how they were feeling…

PHOTOS : EDDIE MACDONALD

CLARE STEEL

FROM COALEY, NEAR TETBURY • AGE 55 JOB HEAD TEACHER AT ALDERMAN KNIGHT SPECIAL SCHOOL, TEWKESBURY, GLOUCS

Twitter: @therunninghead

You’ve been suffering from inflamed tendons in the foot. How has this affected your training?

It is now only three days from race day and I haven’t run for 11 days since hurting my foot doing a trail race. Within a couple of hours of the run, I realised I had done something to my right foot as I had significant pain on walking and, by Sunday, I was down to a hobble! In fact I have been hobbling for 10 days and only now is it starting to feel better. Luckily my training plan had my runs tapering in readiness for the big day but I certainly hadn’t planned on not doing any training for the last two weeks!

Injury aside, how did you find that race in general? Did it instil confidence in your fitness?

The run was great. It was a nine-mile trail run and I thoroughly enjoyed it –particularly as I ran up all the hills (not fast but at least I was doing the running action which was important for me!). This race gave me huge confidence and I felt I could have done a few more miles at a push so, in terms of feeling prepared for the half-marathon, I felt I was really on track!

How have you been managing the injury since?

I have been going to see a sports therapist who has been helping loosen up my calf muscles as these have been causing problems with my Achilles. It seems that the pain in my foot was partially caused by me running up all the hills in the nine-mile trail race. So one of the things I was really chuffed about had actually been very damaging! The problem appears to be inflammation of the ‘inferior extensor retinaculum’ muscle (never heard of it!) that goes across the front of the foot and apparently my running style doesn’t help! I overpronate so buy road running shoes to compensate but my trail shoes don’t do this so I am wondering if I might need insoles. I have also been icing, resting, elevating and using a range of different gels. I have also found that actually wearing my high heels at school helps!