The chickens have come home to roost. The past several months I've lied to friends, family and even myself. I'm coming clean...my ankle sucks ass. I've gotten away with murder really, first running the R2R2R with friends in early May. I was so close to pulling the plug envisioning my ankle blowing up on the canyon floor and me riding shamelessly atop a mule back out to safety. Alas my ankle behaved and the adventure was stellar. Then two weeks later at the Blackfoot 100K and National 100K trail championships I gave myself a 50/50 chance of completing the race. Not only did I finish it, I feel I ran one of my better races to date winning the damn thing and setting a CR. So hell, if a guy is batting 2 for 2 with a rusty, tattered ankle why not Sinister 7 right?
Wrong!
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| After dropping from the race |
Twenty two kilometers into the 100M trail run the technical single track trail took the worst possible pitch for my ankle and the tall grass and brush nearly blocked all sight of my foot fall; as a result making my ankle scream bloody murder. The throbbing pain made me extremely tentative making running these rock blanketed descents downright dangerous. Any trail runner could guess what happened next, not one but two rolls of my ankle both accompanied by a prepubescent school girl screech. The voice of reason told me to stop but the ultra runner inside me reminded me of the pain I felt at the 45K mark of Blackfoot followed by the eventual numbing from flooding inflammation. Needless to say I was conflicted, that was until I found myself at the first creek crossing. Plunging my ankle knee deep in that glacier cold water erased all feelings of pain and in its place a smile came upon my face. I remember telling myself, "I'm tired of running in pain." I chilled in that creek for awhile very happy with my decision of dropping from the race.
Being really good at lying to ourselves makes us equipped with the best tool it takes to run ultras but it also sets us up to disregard proper sign of injury. I'm exhausted! I'm tired of telling people "Hey, my ankle is good." I'm tired of grimacing every downhill step of every run. Somewhere along the way I forgot the reason why I run. It's tough to enjoy a run when you're in pain.
Hi, my name is Dave and I have a lying problem.
BIG congrats goes out to Vincent Bouchard and Caroline Mcilroy for two earth shattering performances making hard to beat S7 course records.
2 comments:
Well written, Dave. Most of us, I expect, have been there. Take your time and heal well, so you can come back to loving what you love.
Thanks Bernadette. I'll see you in Lethbridge in September.
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