The Running Marketer

Yeah, so I’m a klutz. That’s an unchangeable fact. And I run. And sometimes I fall.

And sometimes I fall when I’m not running.

A tripped on a footpath during my first group run and grazed all down my arm. It was pretty disgusting. A friend banned me from run group for the weeks before my wedding because I’m too klutzy to avoid an injury.

I got cleared to re-start marathon training on December 1. It’s now 3 weeks until the Ballarat Marathon. Of course there’s been injuries. Here they are in the order I remember them. Change that. The most amusing is last, even though a few would have looked funnier at the time. Oh, and I haven’t counted the injury that created this website.

The strained hamstring

About 3 weeks ago I strained my hamstring. I don’t recall what I was doing. Probably running. It was possibly the hills session I ran with Michelle. Maybe I shouldn’t have challenged her on the last interval. She beat me anyway.

But it was at the “I can feel it stage” until a few hours after a practice 21.1km run. Then I spent last week babying and it’s back to “I can feel it”. Fingers-crossed it’s OK for Ballarat in just under 3 weeks.

The bleeding, calloused toes

Hmm, shoes. My new favourite shoes fell apart. Seriously, the sole fell apart during a seriously average treadmill run. I had just bought my first pair of Hoka Bondi and grabbed a pair of ASICS Kayano 30s. Unfortunately neither have enough support for my feet. and I’m getting callouses on my big toes and after one longer run, the skin was worn right down. Gross and ouch.

Would it be wrong to buy up all the remaining stock of ASICS Kayano 31s so I always have a perfect pair and no yuck toes?

A chafed arm

That chafed several times, while in the pool. Well, really it only chafed once each pool trip but it took a few trips for me to find a solution. After all, arms don’t usually get chafed in a 50m lap pool. Well, they do when there’s a big water running belt in the way. But weirdly only on one arm. Vaseline on my arm before each deep water run and it’s all good.

The bruised knees

So, my gym is at a shopping centre. It’s really easy, ride up to the car drop off point and use the kerb to get off my bike. Except I did that and ended up cleanly, on my knees next to the bike. Yeah, I’m not sure how that happened either. Both knees bruised for a couple of weeks.

The bruised knee and calf

This is actually the most recent unless you count the Hoka Bondi shoes rubbing again tonight. Let’s not. OK. the knee and calf. I had a race yesterday. Not an important one but still a race. So of course I fell and injured my legs on Saturday. I was picking up a new FlipBelt and wanted to try it on. It didn’t need a changeroom or even a chair. Except I did. I lost my balance and landed on the base on a clothes rack. Big bruises and a bit of a scrape. But the belt fits and I still ran OK in the race.

The stubbed toe

And the most amusing. It’s really only amusing to me. I don’t think anyone around knew what happened. It was during that same practice 21.1km run. Gorgeous Albert Park Lake on a cool enough and a bit sunny day. It was also the week after the F1 Grand Prix, so still some roads closed. A palm tree branch had fallen on the path making a trip hazard. They’re just leaves, so I kicked it out of the way. Except, there’s a heavy, hard branch holding those leaves together. Ouch.

No real damage done and the hamstring strain was more memorable, concerning and less stupid. But that’s probably why I still blush at a stubbed big toes from kicking some leaves.

The Ballarat injury avoidance plan

It’s now 2 weeks and 6 days until the half marathon in Ballarat. Apart from Wednesday night group runs, I think I’ll stay on the treadmill with shorter runs. It’s safer.

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Photo by Nikola on Unsplash. Unsplash needs more photos of women athletes. It was the choice of this image or my current purple-green bruise.