Injured?!?

What if I told you that in 18+ years of running, I'd never twisted my ankle badly enough to consider it an injury?

Today I did. That was sort of traumatizing, especially since the course today was in the trail system I regularly train on....like I run it 8 times a month or so. And it wasn't on part of the trail that I would have expected to roll an ankle (flat! No roots, no mud, no nothing!). At first I thought I'd broken it because I heard a loud pop sound. My next thought was "Oh, no, I'm not gonna be THAT person that the life squad has to hike in 2 miles for and then carry back out!"

I've never had a "did not finish," and even though twisting it happened 2 miles into a 10-mile run, I still haven't. I ran another 8 miles post-"oh crap" moment. At first I couldn't bear weight on it at all. After about 5 steps I started to gingerly walk on it, and 200 yards after that I was doing a hobble shuffle. About 1/4 mile later I was going strong....not as fast as I'd planned, but still respectable.

I finished around an hour and 40 minutes, the 7th woman to finish the race and well into the top half of the overall finishers.

I've spent the afternoon sleeping with a bag of ice in an ACE bandage strapped around my ankle. And I'm actually taking medicine! At times like these I'm really glad that I don't medicate myself often (in fact almost never - I usually prefer to "mind over matter" it), because now that I truly need it the ibuprofen is working very effectively. The ankle feels stiff but not too bad and only hurts (and even then only slightly) when I go down stairs.

My main concern is how the potential disruption in training (I'm not going to run until Wednesday at the very earliest, though I think I'll still walk) will affect my 50K. Of course, my only major running injury happens less than a month before I'm planning to run the longest run I've ever done.

I guess that's life! I'm just glad it wasn't worse.