Not the Open 2 Day

Two weeks ago I was up in the Lakes, marshalling the Darren Holloway Memorial Buttermere Horseshoe fell race. It was an ace day organised by CFR with Pennine support, lots of Pennine turning out to run and some fantastic cakes decorated with pennine coloured flowers made by Amanda Holloway. The course was punishing one,a combintation of teenager with altitude, Borrowdale and Ennerdale, but one I certainly want to have a go at next year!

Hopegill Head - Buttermere Skyline in the mist

The next day I decided to do Arnison Dash, at 2 miles with 300m climb it's one of my favourite kinds of races, lung busting climb then fling yourself off the top - a short race I can do well! Plus it was a beautiful day so would be rude not to. I set off with Hazel Robinson, aiming to stick with her to the top and give my calves, which had been knotting up pretty well since the last Open 2 Day, a proper test. Great news, they were spot on :-).

At the top I was 30s-1min down (no watch so a bit of a guess) and decided to cut my losses and not chase Hazel down the hill as there was a big gap to 3rd and I wanted to stay in one piece for the following weekends 2 Day.
This turned out to be a big mistake, I ran relatively slowly down the hill, overthinking the rocky ground and about 2/3 of the way down went over on my ankle. Lesson number 1, never run slowly downhill! Straight back up on my feet, I knew I'd done a good one but could still just about hobble my way down.

Immediate swelling above the lateral malleolus

On closer inspection I knew it was bad. My ligaments are a bit too stretchy and normally the bones in my foot hit the floor before I tear anything and I don't often get swelling. This time the swelling was immediate and after sitting down I could no longer weight bare. In addition, the swelling was above the area that has previously swelled and so it was off for an xray. No break could be seen but they put me in a pot given how swollen it was.

Back in Sheffield I was given a splint boot thing and told to weight bear when I could, however it wasn't until day 11 that I finally felt like I could put my foot on the floor let alone put weight on it.

And the swelling spread

Yesterday I saw the physio and the good news is I can bike and aqua jog and, after some rather painful mobilisation, can walk! Well....sort of. Still got some swelling to get rid of and theres a bit of a question mark over wherther there is fracture at the bottom of my fibula that was missed on the first xray given an area of localised pain, but this is progress!

So last weekend I went to the open 2 day but was the one with the start/finish boxes. Me and Fi got out for 10mins in a team injured/pregnant kayaking pair and me and Sarah went for a bit more of a paddle Sunday afternoon. That combined with crutching around has given my upper body a good strengthening whilst my left calf is slowly disappearing.

Not sure if it was more or less painful than racing...

Hopefully by the C2C I'll be back to racing.