Pain Is Just Your Body Telling You It's In Terrible Pain

THIS ARTICLE WAS MEANT to be an upbeat missive detailing my first 1500m race in almost 30 years, a race that would have signalled a spring of track exploration.

- Paul Tonkinson

I would sprint round bends and emerge into summer fitter and faster, ready to have a proper crack at cross-country, or maybe even another fast marathon. But no. Because nibbling away at the edges of my consciousness has been the knowledge that I’ve needed a hernia operation for at least three years. Finally, after a very painful weekend away, during which I could hardly leave my bed, such was the discomfort that I bit the bullet and booked an op.

I’m big on denial. The hernia had been nagging me for a long time – a bump steadily growing larger above my groin month on month, popping out to say hello, then popping back in again. These things don’t get better. In my mind it got shoved under the carpet, in the same category as the damp wall in the living room that’s needed fixing for years. You know you have to do it, but you can live with not doing it (knowing, at the same time, that it’s just getting worse).