The date is 25th of January, 2015. As usual, we are drinking tea at the local Teahouse after a nice winter run with friends. As the discussion goes on until 11pm, I decide to accompany one of the girls to run home, who live at the other end of the city. We say our goodbyes, and I head back home. Due to the "perfect texture" on the roads, I fell on my right (and dominant) hand after a glorious ballet performance. As the pain was not really decreasing, I went to the hospital next day, and got a nice temporary plaster.
The doctor started to explain to me, how many weeks it will take to heal, that I should not let water near the plaster, etc. Probably to Her surprise my response was the following question:
Thank You, but can I run with it?!
So long story short: my scafoide got broken, and the doctors said, it would need 10-12 weeks to heal, if it will heal at all, otherwise I'll need to undergo a surgery. But they said, that it is ok to run, just I shouldn't break my other arm as well. So I ran.
Running with this temporary plaster was not something very uncomfortable, the biggest issue was with the gloves, that I could not take on properly in case of really cold weather. Two weeks later I got a new and shiny blue plaster made of a lighter and water resistant plastic like material:
This one was much more comfortable, and thus I went on running a lot. Since I really could not bike at all, I may have run more like I would have with a healthy arm. Here are some photos of different races I also attended to:
The Rocky Balboa trail run in February
A 2/3 Marathon around Lake Velence in March
And last but not least: the Vivicitta Half Marathon in Budapest in April.
(Yeah, that is my nephew in a running baby cart, but that will be covered in an other post :-))
I've never felt any pain or anything. The only discomfort was the process to dry the wadding out after a "cleaning session". This latter was unadvised by the doctors, but it was absolutely necessary once every 1 or 2 weeks, as all the sweat accumulated below the plaster, and became an issue rather quickly.
So, as a conclusion I could say, that having a plaster on my arm did not really set me back in running. Also, I don't believe, that running that much did prolong the healing curve. I like to think, that doing a lot of exercise and having an active circulation did actually help the cause. (I did not need a surgery in the end.) But I have no medical background, so that is just a wishful speculation. Anyhow, one should rather not have any injuries to begin with.
Have You ever had a similar issue? Did You continue running? If yes, how did it go?
