Comrades Marathon Blog

Yes, I have returned, I am indeed blogging again. I won’t be apologising for not posting anything this year so far, I’ll just tell you why. This could be a long post, so skip to the end if you’re not bored. I’ve managed to allow an old ankle injury to come back from the past, and hinder my running progress. About 10 years ago, I ran in the school cross country team, and as I finished, I stepped into a small hole in the ground, and my right ankle keeled over. I remember wearing an ankle cast for about 2 weeks, then it was back to sport as usual. A simple sprain, I thought.

So last year, I decided to revive my running, and it took over 1000km to cause some pain in my ankle, just behind the joint, then shooting up the the leg. There was no swelling, and I could walk on it just fine. The pain started just after I was hitting some great form, I ran my first sub 40 min 10km, and a few days prior to that, a PB over 8km. It was because of this form, I carried on running, as the pain wasn’t too bad, old shoes I figured, so I bought new shoes. After a week of running, it was getting worse, and I battled to walk the day after I ran, never mind run. So I went to physio number 1, who I suspect didn’t understand exactly what the cause of the pain was, but didn’t admit it. So after 2 sessions, I headed to physio number 2, who came highly recommended to me by Lindsay Parry, the official Comrades coach. He admitted not being sure, and would not diagnose me if he wasn’t sure. He suspected that my previous ankle sprain could be causing the problem, but also suspected that some cartilage is lodged in the front of the ankle, causing the pain. I’m obviously not big on technical medical terms. His advice was to keep on running, as I could run, and it would not harm the ankle further. So off I went, and had 13km of pure pain. I don’t know how I managed that, but I was worried that my fitness was dropping, so I needed to run. I phoned the physio, and he referred to me to an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in ankles. Yippee.

The problem with specialists is that they are incredibly busy, and it can take weeks to get an appointment. I was lucky, I got an appointment with the doctor the day after I phoned. He did some x-rays, and determined that my ankle ligaments had never been given a chance to heal properly when I sprained them all those years ago, and I now have a mechanical instability in my ankle. His suggestion was to buy an ankle brace and I was to run with it, forever. My initial reaction was one of shock and anger. I expected him to have some miracle treatment, fixing my ankle, and I could go on training for the big C. The ankle brace he had recommended was the new Aircast A60, a new high tech running gadget for me to get excited about. If the brace didn’t stop the pain, the only solution after that was to have an operation to fix the ligaments.

So I waited 7 days for the inflammation to calm down, then went for a jog, no success, still pain. I wasn’t happy. 2 days later, I tried again, this time I managed 800m without pain, the it started. Still not happy, but getting used to the fact that I can’t run, and by this time I’ve forgotten what runner’s high felt like. I substituted cycling for running, just to try and keep fit, but it’s just not the same. About 4 days after my last attempt, just over a week ago, I tried again. Success! 35 minutes (and I could have run longer) with very little pain, and it felt great! I ran the following day as well. It was not perfect, but I could definitely feel the ankle brace was helping.

It was not perfect though, there was still this nagging pain in the back of my ankle, which was urging me to go back to the doctor. I couldn’t manage more than an hour of running, how was I going to manage 3 hours for the marathon? Or 9 hours during Comrades? I went back to the doctor, he basically told me what I already knew, but did drop the news that I was going to have to have the operation some time in my life, if I intend on a long running career.

So this is my decision: do I have to the op now, get it over with? Or do I try and run Comrades with the brace this year and have the operation after? At the moment, I’m leaning toward having the operation as soon as possible and then attempting Comrades 2008. I want my first Comrades to be a memorable experience, and don’t want to have the thought of my ankle giving up holding me back or preventing me form enjoying the race. This is my thinking at the moment, it might change.

In the time being, I am running, not huge mileage, but it’s ok for now. I’ll keep blogging, whether it’s my recovery from my operation or stumbling through the Comrades Marathon 2007.