Remembrance Day

I found myself with a rare mid week day off due to Remembrance Day falling on a Wednesday. I looked around for something to do and found a race in Vancouver. The race info said the race was taking place at Brockton Oval, which is a track. So I thought it would be fun to run 8k on a track.

Except the race started at Brockton Oval and was actually a trail run. Although I train on a hills course I wasn't prepared for an actual trail run. Against my better judgement I decided to run the race anyway.

Halfway through the race I was on pace for a 34 minute 8K but I lost focus as I was thinking about my awesome pace and tripped on a rock as I was running downhill. I sprained my ankle pretty bad.

I sat there for a few minutes in pain and disappointment. One of the many runners who passed me asked if I had tripped on a rock. When I told him I had he responded with a sympathetic "Son of a b*%#@, eh?!" Honestly, that made me feel alot better.

Eventually I was able to put some weight on the ankle and even started a halting jog. It hurt but I was determined to finish the remaining 4K to honor my grandfathers who served in WWII. But I was soon discovered by a race marshall who advised me to stop running while she radioed for the medical car. Discretion being the better part of valor I decided that I had given it a good effort but needed to not dammage the ankle any more. The ride back to the start was so embarrassing. So with my head hung in shame I achieved my first DNF.

The xray the next day showed a small avulsion fracture so I'll be on a crutch for the next two weeks and then re xray it and go from there. Hopefully the next x ray will be fine and I can start working back to my base mileage.