Last Sunday, as usual I am in a mad rush getting the gear ready for Sunday morning football. Water bottles to be filled, Hayden’s double knotted footy boots to sort out, the endless search for his missing mouthguard....
My phone rings, it is my sister Monica. I grab her call and she is crying, she has fallen over whilst running. She explains she has blood coming from her nose and her wrist is really sore.
She doesn’t know how she fell over, but she has fallen awkwardly on her right wrist and somehow landed on her face.
Now I am a bit of a “tough love” sort of brother. Monica often calls saying she has had a long day at work and is going to skip her running session – I always guilt her into running, telling her to suck it up. 99% of the time it works, and normally I get a phone call back an hour later saying it was just what she needed.
So on Sunday I was pretty sure that she hadn’t done anything too bad. I said that she should get a lift home if she thought she couldn’t drive and go to the doctor if it was still sore. I told her she will have to get her run in on the Monday as she couldn’t miss this session leading up to Gold Coast.
Monica has been training like a champion and is on track to finally break 2hrs for the half marathon. I know she can do it, and finally she is starting to believe that she can do it too. The previous week she ran a very solid 20km at 6.01 pace at the Brisbane Road Runners and it puts her on track come race day to tear her 2.08 PB to pieces.
Sunday afternoon – she calls again and says she has had an X-Ray on her wrist but the doctor doesn’t think it is broken, they will know for sure the next day when the radiologist has a look over the X-Ray. Great news I say, have a day off it is sore – then get in a smash that 15km that we had planned.
Monday:
Monday:
“Ring Ring”
Me – Hey whats up?
Mon – My wrist is broken!
Me –WHAT THE F&%K?!
Well that was surely a surprise to me!!! Who would of thought you could snap your wrist by falling over whilst running!
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| Monica's Arm :( |
The first thing that strikes me is that she is so super positive. She says she still wants to run Gold Coast and give it a crack. This is such a change in attitude, and it proves she is on the way to being a more positive thinker.
As Rodney had done a lot of running earlier in the year with his arm in plaster, she knows you can do it. There are even running articles encouraging it!
So what does this mean for the PB attempt??
I guess Monica and I are in a similar situation, she is now not expecting to PB as she will probably be racing with her arm in a cast. And I have really embraced the “enjoy the day” “run naked” approach to this marathon. We both don’t expect too much, and to be perfectly honest the approach probably suits us both.
I know she can do it, even with a broken wrist. I hope she puts the hammer down next week and just goes for it. Nothing to lose!
On the subject of injuries, many new runners often experience an overuse injury right before their first big race. Jason and I had both experienced this, Jason often struggling with shin splints, and I have run 3 marathons with groin/foot /ITB issues. Facebook was alight with injury issues over the weekend.
My advice is to take it easy, rest up and re-evaluate your goals for race day. I’ve tried to run crazy PBs in marathons with injuries before, and from my experience 42km is a long way and you need everything to be going your way to PB.
Big blog next week! Gold Coast Marathon race preview!!
Pex
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| Crew Chief Monica on the left, at Nerang 50k Ultra |
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