Injuries

The first time I was injured as a runner was five months before my first marathon. It was November 2001. Two months earlier I had run my first road race, the Alsterlauf in Hamburg, one of the biggest 10k road races in Germany. I finished strong in 47:11 and was quite pleased with this result. My next scheduled race, the International Airport Race in Hamburg, didn’t take place because of the terrorist attacks on September 11th.

So my second road race was a 25k, a beautiful run through the countryside, which took place on a particularly cold and wet November Sunday. I had never run 25 km before. My training runs were usually 10-12 km, and had run 16 km two times in training. Not enough, as it turned out.

The first 20 km of the race went well. Then my problems began. My leg (I don’t remember which one) ached on the outer side, especially when I ran downwards. It hurted so much that I was forced to walk at one underground crossing. After the race I could hardly walk. It was well after Christmas that I could start running again.

The funny thing with past injuries is that you forget them soon. On the other hand, positive experience seems to be kept in memory forever. I remember perfectly my first 10k-race, the finishing time and how I felt afterwards. My leg injury, which I acquired 2 months after that race, is almost wiped out from my memory. I even don’t remember if it was the left or the right leg. I think it was ITBS, but I’m not sure. Isn’t that curious? It was an injury which threatened my first marathon! And I don’t remember it?

The same happened with other injuries I had in the course of time. When they are present, they dominate my conscience. When they have gone, I soon don’t remember them. Normally when I’m without injury, I can’t say when I had my last injury.

Currently I do not run due to an injury. A few days after running the Dublin Marathon I realized a pain in my achilles tendon. It didn’t bother me that much then, but on my first run a week after the marathon it ached more and more. I went to a doctor, who prescribed physical therapy. The therapist advised me not to start running before the end of the treatment, and so I have tried to keep myself in shape with cycling and hiking for the last weeks.

Once a fellow runner said to me: “You know you’re a runner when you are injured and do not ask yourself ‘Will I ever be able to run again?’, but you ask ‘When will I be able to run again?’”. You can’t run without getting injured sometimes. At least I can’t. The trick is (a) to prevent injuries, which is easy if you follow a few rules (I haven’t followed anyof them) and (b) to accept injuries and use them to give your whole body a rest.

These are my top 3 rules for avoiding injuries:

1. Stretch before and after every run.
2. Do not increase your weekly milage unreasonably (for example by more than 10 km).
3. Be cautious with tempo training. Increase the intensity gradually week by week.

And here my top 4 for curing injuries:

1. If the pain worsens during a run, stop running for at least a week. Then try again.
2. If the pain won’t go away, see a doctor.
3. Try applying ice and heat to the injured area. Figure out what works best to relieve the pain.
4. Don’t start running too early after an injury break.