Northern Cross Country Champs

A while ago I turned my ankle whilst out doing an off road run.  Luckily it seemed ok for the rest of the run and when I got home I iced it and took some ibuprofen for a few days, carried on training as normal and all seemed ok.  

Unfortunately, with every cross country race I have done my ankle/achilles has been feeling niggly either during or after and getting worse after every race.  I've managed to keep things going in training by icing and stretching several times a day and convincing myself its just a niggle and nothing more.  

So I "attempted" the Northern Cross Country Champs in Pontefract yesterday.  I knew things weren't great on my warm up as it was worse than it has been in training all week. At this point I was still trying to convince myself all will be ok and it just needs warming up and will be fine.  I started the race and it was sore.  Things just went from bad to worse - from being sore but manageable to practically limping by 3k.  At this point I was just jogging until I saw my husband and had to pull out.  

I'm gutted.  I never expected anything amazing at the champs but just to do my best.  Doing cross country this year was to serve a purpose in doing something different (I haven't done cross country properly for over 10 years with just 2 races 8 years ago) and to gain some strength going into my road running from March onwards.  

I knew that there was a possibility of injury especially to my achilles.  I have been prone to problems from just doing steady runs on bobbly ground in the past but I had to give it a try.  

A few days rest and some physio and hopefully I can get back to training and a rethink of what I want to do.