Ignoring Pain

I shared that I got injured at Bighorn and ultimately didn’t finish the race. That sharing leads me to a thought I’ve been having for a while. The thought, maybe a wondering, is how long should one ignore pain in training or even in a race.

At Bighorn, my injure occurred in the 18th mile. I remember it exactly even though there was no specific “event” that can be tied to the injury. Suddenly, while running a downhill section that was relatively smooth dirt trail, a severe sharp pain struck in my right foot. Right along the front external edge where the ankle and foot come together. So sharp I was seeing fireworks each time it struck. It only occurred while running downhill and only when my foot twisted a certain direction. I hadn’t stepped on anything at the moment it struck, hadn’t twisted my foot in any notable fashion, nothing really. Just sudden severe pain.

I didn’t ignore the pain initially. I stopped and just sat on a rock for a few minutes absorbing it. Then I continued on expecting the pain to kind of just resolve and fade away as most of the little pains I’ve experienced in an ultra have before. But it never did. That same downhill foot twist remained equally painful all the way to the next aid station. I nearly called the day there. Instead, a wonderful aid station worker helped me ice it down, encouraged me to at least go on to the next major aid station where the ability to drop would be better, and see if it resolves. I did this. The initial near constant pain did evaporate. But that downhill twist, that remained to the next aid station. That remained all the way to where I eventually dropped at mile 48 at the mid race turn around. And the problem was, the first half of the race had been mostly uphill, so the pain had been minimized and mostly ignorable. But the second half would be mostly downhill, and I could barely move without significant pain downhill. I moved so slowly, even getting to the next major aid station before cut off seemed impossible at the pace I had been moving. Ignoring the pain wasn’t going to be possible. And I wasn’t sure ignoring the pain was a good idea in the first place.

Which brings me to where I began this, how does one know when it’s okay to ignore pain and when not in running and training and racing? Right now, I have some patellar tendonitis that has been bothering me for a couple weeks. I’ve been ignoring it, thought it’s pretty uncomfortable. I do have a week coming up where I’ll be training very little, and am hoping that tendonitis mostly resolves while I rest. 

Yet I wonder if I should have rested earlier. And for how long? I have no idea. Just wonderings today.

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