Tuesday 19 June 2012

17.06.12 Brookfield Bog Challenge and the injury!

After a long week I wanted to chill out on the weekend but Vic and I had a course we were attending and I had a race to run.  The course Vic and I were attending was a sleep course to try and sort out how to make Lachlan a better sleeper.  Waking up 3-6 times a night is no longer fun so thank you to the Sleep Store for their awesome seminar.  I had my Vibram's on and attended the 2 hour session before walking around to do the shopping before chilling out before my 12km run the following day.

It is not often that I wake up for an event/race and can't be bothered doing it but catching up from my early morning on Friday coupled with a long week, I was exhausted.  Today was the Broofield Bog Challenge which is 12km of running through bush, up a big hill and a whole lot of obstacles along the way including...plenty of mud!!!

I get dressed and head to the race and feel like I need to stretch out my middle toe for some reason.  I put on my second oldest trail shoes (that's right shoes!!!) for the first time in a long time and head onto the course.  It is 3 laps of a 4km course and involves a run through bush, tyre run followed by a creek run (water temp was at 2 degrees), plank walk, wall climb, tunnel crawl, second wall climb, followed by a huge hill climb.  Once the hill is done you complete a fast decent down the hill through a pine forest, into the streams (also 2 degrees) followed by a rope crossing, more running through streams followed by a wade through a chest height river for 100 metres and then into a mud pool followed by an army crawl under a cargo net that is filled with mud.  The course is shown below and no my heart did not stop before the second hill, my heart rate monitor nearly fell off and lucky enough it stayed on until the end of the race when I realised.

I am into lap 1 and can really feel some bad discomfort in my left shoe as I make my way up the big hill.  As I am running down the hill the pain seems to subside a little and then I am into the water where my feet quickly become numb from the cold and there is no more pain.

I head off on lap 2 and realize quickly that there is a major problem with my left foot.  Although a lot of the running around down the bottom of the hill is flat and there is a fair bit of water, there is a severe pain.  I don't realise how bad it is until I am going through the tunnel crawl and using my feet to push me along and as I stand up from the tunnel crawl, I nearly pass out in pain.  Do I keep going? Of course I do, not going to let a little pain stop me.  It feels pretty bad and as I finish lap 2 and I contemplate stopping.  I decide that I only have 4km to go and so might as well keep going.  I again have my feet numbed by the cold water but even on this lap know my foot is getting worse.  As I am running through the tyre run I fall over and twist my left ankle.  A volunteer asks if I have twisted it and say, "A little bit," knowing full well that I have well and truly twisted it.  I get back up and keep going.  I go through the tunnel crawl again knowing that it will hurt when I get up.  I am right, it is agony.  I limp off to do the climb of the hill and make my decent finally finishing in 1 hour 44 minutes.

I walk around for a little bit and the foot is painful but not limiting me walking properly.  I find Victoria and head back to the car where I begin to take off my freezing and muddy clothes.  First things off is my muddy shoes.  I take my foot out of the shoe and take my sock off and there is no visible bruising or  swelling so not sure what is going on.  I put my foot down and put weight on it ready to take my right shoe off and nearly pass out with pain.  The bottom of my foot between my middle toes is so sore that I almost vomit when pressure is put on it.  I hobble around the car and get dressed all whilst trying not to put any pressure on my foot.  I eventually get changed and start warming up whilst Vic drives me home. Once at home I have a hot shower and my foot feels better but I know there is something not right.  I am tempted to go to the hospital tonight but the pain is not excruciating so decide to see the night through with a couple of Panadol and wait and see how it feels in the morning.

No comments:

Post a Comment