unbelievably bad

after producing arguably the worst performance of my life at weston on thursday i consulted my coach mike via the phone and from what he has seen of me and the symptoms that i am describing he is almost certain that i'm anemic. this means that i currently have a lack of iron in my blood and/or my haemoglobin/ferretin levels are low, which consequently means that i have a lack of oxygen in my blood. a course of iron tablets would sort it out but to get the right ones at the right strengthyou would have to be prescribed them and prescriptions of course mean referals and blood tests and it may even mean that i have to take some time off training in order for my body to replenish it self although i sincerely hope it wont come to that. weston was a bit of a disaster, i mean i even got beaten by a woman for godssake, some thing that has never happened to me down there before. at 30 minutes and 30 seconds that is the second slowest time i have run on that course. and frankly if i had known i was going to run that badly i wouldn't even of bothered getting out of bed in the morning and i would have stayed there all day as the whole race was just a waste of time. so priority number one now is to get healthy again before i start thinking about running fast times, as they will not come if i'm anemic. only then will i start to think about what times i will be aiming for by the end of the winter and not before.

i am though using the spare time to look for races and there is a 5k and a 4 miler coming up in burnham on sea before the end of the year so i will be entering them. the 4 miler will be 5 days before the clevedon boxing day 4 so it will be perfect preparation for that race. the only difference though is that all competitors at burnham have to wear a bell around their neck, which will probably start to irritate me but if it does i will find some way of discreetly disposing of it, probably in a bush half way around the course!