Week 6 and very nearly a DNF

Welcome to week 6 of my marathon training blog, it's been an interesting week. Wednesday's 2 miles became 3.5, it had snowed during the day so it was very slippy underfoot and as a result pace was 10.01 per mile.
By Thursday the snow had gone so the pace was much better, the plan said 7 miles but my route ended up being 6.5 at 9.44 pace. It was one of those runs where you feel like you can go on forever but it was Valentine's day and I wanted to get home for my steak.

The long run this week was 18 miles, it just so happened that today was the Stamford 30km race (18.6 miles in old money). I was expecting the final few miles to be difficult based on my previous long runs, in fact the last few miles weren't the problem. I've had a niggley knee for a couple of weeks but it's been fine when I run but hurt when driving or going downstairs. I was aiming to run at 10-11 min mile pace today, nice and steady it was about the mileage rather than the speed. I ran the first 4 miles with a friend which was lovely and helped the early miles go by quickly. I stopped for a gel at 4 miles and planned to catch her up. My knee was starting to bother me for the first few paces of any walk/run transition but then it was OK again. By 7 miles it was not OK, not OK at all. Every step hurt, like I was being stabbed in the knee. Walking didn't help, it just hurt more when I tried to run. I had a mini-tantrum and shed a couple of tears, I felt fit and was gutted that something like this was going to make me pull out. Runners were passing me as I walked down a hill and tried to encourage me but I couldn't run. Then, just before the 8 mile point came the race changing moment. A man ran past and asked if I was alright, I explained that my knee had gone and he said "join the club, I've got some naproxen if you want one?". I've always been taught not to accept drugs from strangers but he showed me the blister pack and it hurt so much I would have tried anything. My thinking was that if this could get me to 10 miles or so then I'd have done a long run and the day wouldn't be a total write off. It was like a miracle drug, within a few minutes I could run and shortly after I could run without pain.

From then then next 10 miles were fine, the scenery was lovely, the marshalls were brilliant and every water station had Jelly babies. I loved the run and I'm so glad that I was able to finish. My overall pace was 10.16, I finished in a time of 3.12 which is better than the 3.30 I was aiming for. I'm worried about my knee now though, I've never had knee trouble. I'm hoping that it's due to muscular tightness and will be fixed after my sports massage tomorrow. The other options are that I've injured it or that it's a Lyme disease thing. At the moment it feels fine but I'm worried that this could put a stop to my marathoning plans. Watch this space, cross your fingers and pray to whichever deity you choose.