Well I think that is it for the season now for me.  Very disappointing.  I don't think that I have had to cancel a season ever!!  However my achilles have just got too bad.  I decided to take time off after Kassel and see where I was at, struggling a bit as I have never had pain in my right one but that was now sore and really bad during the race.  After a few days I had the opportunity to race in a smaller meeting in Lugano in Switzerland over 800 meters.  One thing I am drastically short of this year is races so I ran 40 on the Wednesday and then 35 on the Thursday.  The feet seemed to be ok, especially the right one which felt fine.  THe left one was still sore, but no more than I am used to so was happy to go to the race and was really looking forward to it.  The weather was fantastic (25 degrees) and not a breath of wind, the perfect racing night.  Warming up was fine, but as soon as I got onto the track into my spikes the pain came again.  The lest thing you want, because however much you try the mind is saying oh no, this is not good!  SO the gun went and I tired to tough the race out, but it was a folorn hope really.  I trailed in last in 1.59 limping down the home straight.  I have never ever not finished a race in my life and was determined that this was not going to be the first.  A bitter pill to swallow, especially after having a great indoor season, probably the best of my career, a good training block after that, and a very happy and content home life.  With some of the guys running great in the UK, (really good to see) it would have been nice to have tried to get involved and make a step up myself given the last few months, but not to be.  Sadly I don't think managing the pain is going to work, and it is now going to be a forced rest, even with a couple of weeks off, there would be no way to get into any sort of shape for the AAA'a so reluctantly I am going to have to give those a miss too.  Shall take a few more days and hopefully get involved with some good cycling, now there are some great places to cycle over here, so hopefully that will keep me reasonably fit.  As James mentions on his blog www.miles-better.co.uk is coming soon and hopefully will be live come July so I shall be getting things sorted for that amongst trying to learn German.  Not much else you can do when you struggle to put your feet down in the morning because of the pain or maybe it is just old age!?

Sp8y