Five Unique Approaches to Running Injuries

Unfortunately, we’ve all been there.  Running injuries can run the gamut from annoying to downright heartbreaking.  Here are five different approaches to running injuries that might make you feel better if you’re one of the unlucky ones right now.

1. The Five Stage of Injury Grief

Beth Risdon of Shut up and Run blog wrote the absolute funniest post on injuries, ever.  This is a must-read!  She takes you through Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance with examples from her own injury at the time.

For some reason I went through the first four stages quickly with my current injury, maybe because I wasn’t training for anything specific. But in 2018 I went through an entire marathon training cycle, including a 22 mile long run, and then my SI joint flared up horribly during the taper.  I went through each of those five stages- I remember the “bargaining” phase well: “Okay, I can’t run the marathon- I’ll just run the half.”  Fat chance!  No, I stayed home on that race day. It was a tough one, but Beth’s article really made me laugh.

2. Keira D’Amato and a Dream Deferred

My heart hurts for this woman.  On Matt Chittim’s recent Road to the Trials podcast, Keira D’Amato talks about the injury that’s forcing her to pull out of the Olympic Trials.  I can’t even imagine what that must feel like.  I mean, I’m going to miss my July 4th 5k… she’s going to miss a race that she’s been working towards for years.  Overall it’s an uplifting interview- her advice is to “fill your life” and she looks at the upside, which is having more time to do things like berry picking with her children.  Unfortunately she’s not the only one in this situation…

3. Molly Huddle Withdraws from the Olympic Trials

Yep.  This article explains that Molly Huddle also has to drop from the Olympic Trials due to injury.  Again, the Olympics only come around every four years, and it’s something all professional runners are geared toward.  I’m sure Molly and Keira went through the five stages of injury grief.  Molly was quoted in this article as saying “You could be successful because of your challenging moments, not in spite of them. That idea makes me want to keep going.”

4. Or, For Something Completely Different…

You could just ignore it and run 100 miles.  In his book Eat and Run, Scott Jurek tells the story of how he sprained his ankle two days before the Hardrock 100 race.  He put a Pro-tec ankle sleeve and aircast over it, wrapped it with duct tape, and ran the race anyway even though the ankle was purple and so swollen you couldn’t see his ankle bones.  There’s a similar story in that book, where he finished an ultramarthon after spraining his ankle in the middle of the race, and in his book North he talks about continuing to move forward on the Appalachian Trail with a quad strain, walking as quickly as he could for days until he could run again.

I don’t know how his body works, but I can tell you I’ve used the strategy of “running through” an injury many times, and it’s never, ever worked.  But, to each his own!  (My favorite part of the Hardrock 100 story is that he won the race.)

5. And Then There’s Me

Hey, I said five unique approaches… and I’m just as unique as the next person. My biggest rule for dealing with injury is JUST. KEEP. MOVING.  In my current situation I’m lucky to be able to run in the pool.  When my SI joint flared up in 2018, I couldn’t do pool running but weirdly COULD do the stair climber at the gym (something about the way my hip didn’t rotate at all while climbing stairs.)  When I was in my 20s I had a stress fracture in my foot, and swam laps while pushing off the wall with one leg.  For me, the point is to figure out what I can do, and DO IT.

The other thing I’ve been doing is listening to running podcasts as much as I can- while in the pool and every time I’m in the car.  I particularly like ones where people are talking about difficult races they’ve run, and extra bonus points if they’ve overcome injury to get there.  While my current reality is running in the pool, listening to running podcasts keeps me in the running world as well, and reminds me that I’ll be back there, eventually.

I’m linking up with Michelle, Darlene, Renee, Jenn and Zenaida for Fit Five Friday!

Anyone have any other mental or physical tricks to getting through an injury?

Please read Beth Risdon’s article and tell me what you think!  She’s so, so funny.