Running Injured
I am a runner. It has taken me a long time to get comfortable referring to myself as a runner. But I am. I spend more money on running shoes than I do on most things. I lace up even when I don’t want to. I care more about Strava segments than how clean my house is. I call nights out with friends early to get a little more sleep before a long run. Most of my clothing smells like Biofreeze.
I am a runner and I get called crazy a lot. By patients, friends, my mom. They laugh, I laugh. Because it’s true. Because I like to run ultra marathons. I did not start out as a runner. I played team sports; soccer, lacrosse, softball. I did not like being solely responsible for my fate. I ran track for one day in middle school and hated it. I hated losing to people (mostly hated losing to my twin sister). I started running as a way to recover from mono after my freshman year of college ( I swear my sister and I both got it from my grandmother’s funeral). We signed up for a half marathon with hopes of getting back into shape for our respective fall lacrosse seasons. We both got called crazy then too. My friends at school could not believe that I wanted to run for 2 hours. Running was our punishment.
I progressed slowly from half marathons and 10ks to my first marathon in 2017 after watching my sister run the Leadville 100. I ran my second marathon as a training run for my first ultra, a 50 miler outside of San Diego.
I have had a few mild injuries over the years. A broken foot during gymnastics in 5th grade, a concussion during college lacrosse, an IT band issue that came to fruition under the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn 9 miles into a half marathon with my friends from PT school. I had to walk in my second marathon after a wild hip spasm at mile 19. After that I sought care from a friend and fellow PT for about 3 sessions; she called me crazy for continuing to train while rehabbing my hip. I ran my first ultra six weeks later. Recently, however, I had an injury that concerned me more. Back pain consistent with a thoracic disc injury. It started two hours after an average 8-miler in the trails near my house. I was chopping brussel sprouts when my back went into spasm. In my PCPs office a few days later, we decided it was nothing to worry about, the pain was gone. Two weeks later it was back. I made it .1 miles into my run (per my Garmin). I DM’d my PCP from the trailhead and updated her on my mileage and relative symptom-free past two weeks. I got a response from her Nurse Practitioner who told me that while my mileage was impressive, maybe I was not giving my body enough time to rest. Maybe I should take a break and make another follow up appointment. I was taken aback. The next day I was speaking to a friend and fellow PT who asked me how long I would keep doing ultras and what if my body couldn’t handle it? Was there something else I liked doing instead of running?
I’d been called crazy before but never by my healthcare providers. I found it embarrassing, patronizing and belittling. Clearly, I could stop running. I could just stop. That would make the back pain go away. But that is something I could have come up with on my own. I did not seek advice from a medical professional to hear, “Well, if it hurts, don’t do it”. We make that joke as PTs a lot. Generally in response to someone contorting their shoulders into odd postures that could not possibly be functional in order to show us what is the most bothersome. I’m ok when my friends and even my patients call me crazy; I’m pretty sure they say it out of love and support. I’m not ok when the judgement comes from those in charge of my health. I have heard this from patients but had never experienced it myself.
At that moment I decided that I was never going to patronize or belittle my patients or their goals. Sometimes the big race is not in the cards, but I will encourage each patient to push through their rehab until we simply have no other options but to DNF. You know what you want and what you are working hard for. I want to help you get there.
