Published: Wednesday, 23rd April, 2008 12:00
Ankle injury fails to halt marathon runner
By Nicola Findlay
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Oil rig worker Jake Carter completed the race even though he had a swollen ankle.
A COALSNAUGHTON off-shore worker swapped an oil rig for the streets of London to complete the world famous marathon.
Jake Carter (43) completed the race in just over four and a half hours despite hurting his ankle during the first eight miles.
By the time he got to the end of the race his ankle was so swollen that he was unable to take his shoe off.
However, he managed to cross the finishing line raising around £4000 so far for the charity LAM Action along with his running partner Dave McRae.
The charity helps those affected by the rare condition lymphangioleiomyomatosis, which causes the lungs to waste away.
It only effects women and is relatively rare with just 120 patients in the UK with the disease.
Jake’s training regime for the race proved to be far from straight forward as he had to spend as much time as possible on a running machine while he was on the oil rig.
He told the Advertiser, “It was a case of getting up at about 4.30 in the morning and spending an hour and a half on a running machine while everyone else was still in their beds. I quite often asked myself why I was doing it!”
Jake also trained while he was at home in Coalsnaughton, running 50 miles a week in preparation for the marathon, which he also ran last year.
“It was a bit different from last year, which was really hot,” he said. “This time we had four seasons in one day – and were even running in hail.
“I was aiming for four and a half hours this year but I went over on my ankle in the first eight miles so I probably wasn’t running at my best. I just kept going, though.
“It was a great atmosphere especially out on the streets and the spectators were great and really kept everyone going.”
An injury wasn’t the only challenge that Jake faced in completing the gruelling race.
He has been an asthmatic all his life and carried his inhaler with him during the race.
But he insists this has never stopped him doing anything and has already signed up for next year’s marathon.
Jake decided to raise money for LAM Action as Dave’s sister-in-law suffers from the debilitating disease.
LAM Action is looking to raise at least £70,000 in each of the next three years to enable it to continue to support a full time post-doctoral scientist and to invest in research in to the condition.
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