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Let the Vaseline take the strain… diary of a marathon running journalist

Mid Devon Gazette trainee Phil Vinter is hoping to beat a muscle strain to tackle the London Marathon this weekend.

Making the time for his training for the big event has not been that easy – as apart from injury worries, and the threat of chafing, he was also in the final stages of revising for his National Certificate Examination last week.

The Gazette has been publishing his diary week by week, and two key extracts are printed below.


It’s a race against time
(published April 12)

Having overcome my leg chaffing difficulties I was looking forward to slowly tapering off training in the final few weeks before the London Marathon.

But, what at the time seemed like a fairly innocuous groin strain five minutes from the end of a rugby match a fortnight ago has stubbornly refused to clear up and, I am now in a race against time to get fit for Sunday.

Not only has the injury put my chances of making the starting line in jeopardy, it has also prevented me from doing any exercise, bar a bit of stretching. So even if I do recover in time to give it a crack I will have lost a lot of fitness.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining and the injury has meant I have been able to enjoy a not unpleasant physiotherapy treatment on the affected right groin area involving two heat pads and an electric current – nice. I will try to go for a gentle jog this evening, but will leave it until the last moment before making a decision.

I really don’t want to pull out. I’ve got a fair bit of sponsorship money resting on me getting around so if it feels all right on Saturday I’ll give it a shot.

Exercise takes its toll(March 29)

Getting out of bed on a Monday morning is never easy for me, but yesterday was particularly painful.

While my mind was ready for action, my legs were pleading for me to let them have the day off.

A game of rugby on Saturday and an 18-mile run on Sunday had taken its toll and the ‘just-five-more-minutes’ doze function on the alarm clock suddenly became my best friend.

Still, despite the pain, I was really pleased to have completed a fairly long run and I am now feeling much more confident of being able to keep running for the full 26.2 miles in the London Marathon on Sunday, April 17.

Furthermore, while every muscle in my legs was in agony on Monday morning, I was over the moon not to be suffering from any ‘chaffing’ between the thighs.

I had become concerned about this condition after reading in a running magazine that chaffing is the ‘silent killer of the long-distance runner’ – ahh!

Without meaning to sound gory, chaffing, in the running sense, is when the skin between the thighs wears away as they rub up against each other.

The ‘silent killer’ had forced me to cut short a run in the rain on Tuesday evening but my trusty marathon magazine said the way to prevent such a slow death was to slap a bit of Vaseline between the legs.

After nearly three hours of running my thighs were left totally unchaffed.

Lovely.

And I am not too worried about suffering from the condition on the big day.

Apparently St John Ambulance volunteers line the London marathon course wearing a rubber glove with a big dollop of Vaseline stuck to it. As I begin to feel pain between my thighs I will be able to run up to one of these kind people, give them a high five, get hold of the magic grease and rub into the appropriate area! Magic!

At least its staying light for longer in the evenings now and with the clocks going springing forward at the end of this month it should make evening runs a bit more pleasant – and getting up in the morning a bit easier!