Broken run on the trail. Broken foot that is.

RUNS: After the 50k on Sunday I was and am feeling pretty darn good. My plan was to run or walk one mile on Monday just to get my legs moving. I seem to have this problem of getting real lazy in the days after a race and I think that is part of my injury issues. No evidence, just my suspicions. But anyhow, it was ugly and rainy and the guy from the car dealership called to say that my new car was ready to pick up that night. Road trip instead!

So I have this new friend that I went running with for the very first time on Tuesday. She thought she was so cool and fast and tried to pass me on the trail. I pushed her down and she broke her foot. Wait. Wait. Thats not how the story goes! Let me try again....

On Tuesday I had plans to run with two girlfriends but one was sick so it was just Rachel and I. Now mind you, this is the first time I am running with her and she has only run trails less then a handful of times. No problem. We will run the easier trails. And I want to take us up and around so that we come out at the Christmas Light Magic towards the end of the run so we can see the lights on.This works for me and her.

We take off running and chatting away keeping the pace slower so that we can talk and take it easy. We got just over 2 miles in and I hear something from behind me and Rachel yell. It sounded like she hit the front of her shoe on a root. But she said she did not and that noise was the side of her foot. You know that kind of noise bones, tendons and muscles make when they are pushed further then they can go?! She somehow rolled it and was in ALOT of pain. She tried to walk it off but that didnt help. So she sat down for a few minutes to see if that helped.

She got back up and we hobbled only feet down the trail and she was having so much pain it was making her lightheaded. We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. I was a little worried because it was getting later and we were the farthest possible from our cars. What are the chances of that!

We discussed several different options on what to do and I finally decided to run ahead for help while she kept moving on the trail as best as she could. Luckily for us, since we were so far from the parking lot meant that we were on the edge of the park. I ran about a quarter mile before I saw a house down the hill. I was looking for a good area to bushwack down to it when all of a sudden I saw a very small trail that led down to the house. I ran down and there was a guy outside. I talked to him and he said if we could get her down to the house that he could take us to our cars.

I ran back up the trail to fetch my new trail running friend and bring her back down when all of a sudden we heard a 4-wheeler. He had driven his 4-wheeler up onto the trail to pick her up. So cool! I think he was pretty excited to be doing this "rescue". She climbed on the back and we headed down to the house and he took us back to the park and to our cars. Thanks to Wayne Smith for being such a Good Samaritan!

We got back to our cars and Rachel assured me she would be okay driving since it was her left foot. And she was. I got a message a few hours later that she had indeed broke a bone in her foot and now she would be in a boot and crutches with no running for six weeks.

It was quite the adventure and not one I want to repeat anytime soon!!

I feel so so bad for her. Not only because I was with her but because I love trail running so much and I want other people to like it to. The trails probably did not leave a very good impression today! And also just the fact that she wont be able to run for six weeks. Since I am still fresh off of my injury and not running for weeks I know exactly how she feels and will feel in the weeks to come. Us runners need our fix.

YOGA: After the run I had already planned to go to yoga. I really felt I needed it after my long run on Sunday and now I needed it even more after the adventures of the day! It was wonderful as usual. I felt a bit more tight in the calves and hammies but not amazingly so. And my balance was about what it usually is. That I wasnt sure how it was going to be.

EATS: Seriously, the only picture I have of food over the past couple of days is this awesome burrito from a new to me burrito place near where we went to pick up my car. Its really the only picture you need. Check it out, it has BBQ rice, tortilla chips and some kind of 3 bean mix.....

Cowboy Crunch Veggie Burrito

Your welcome!

What has your worst running related injury been?
I think mine was actually my groin back in 2010. It was about 6 months before I could run pain free.

Peace.