Wipe Out

It was surprisingly fresh when a group of eager runners assembled at the bottom of (the trail section) of Mountain Highway for the spring Mountain Highway Madness.  A few keen souls had signed up for 2 loops at 15km each, but most were more modest and happily aimed for 1 loop up the gravel road to the quarry and back.  "Would there be snow?" was the big questions.  After the  the torrential rains and warmth of several Pineapple Express weather systems, the only one believing we would encounter snow was Mike, our event host.  He came equipped with a pair of snowshoes.
  
I certainly was surprised to tackle snow on and of starting at km 4.  The stuff was nasty to run on, rutted and hard and soon my shins were all scratched up from post holing.  Apart from were the snow patches started and stopped and the melt water had frozen into slick ice patches, the course was ot treacherous, though.  The ice patches were easily avoided, if one paid attention!  

I found myself in my usual position at the back of the pack, but was happy to see Mike and Sam at the turn-around, as I figured I would be able to hang on for the downhill, push my pace and enjoy the company. Mike disappeared quickly, but Sam took his time and we fell into a comfortable pace negotiating the snow, fallen branches and mountain bikers who were pushing their bikes uphill.  Distracted by our chatting and a big group of mtn bikers, I ended up stepping on ice on the very last patch of snow, kaboom... I wiped out. It would have been a benign little tumble, if my leg would not have been ripped out from underneath me in an obsurd angle.  I heard the rip, felt the searing pain and immediately knew I had done some damage.  Poor Sam witnessed a few choice swear words uttered more out of frustration over getting injured than over the excrutiating pain.    Assessing the situation, I sent Sam to find a stick and propped myself up.  I think Sam was still hoping I'd come around and would be able to run again, but I knew my knee was pooched.

A pair of mountain bikers started squabbling over which of their bike I would ride downhill and out of the woods. Sweet.  Sam figured I'd catch up to him and continued on his run.  Biker dudes eventually figured it out, propped me up on one of the bikes and I started rolling downhill.  I shed a few tears thinking of how this would affect my marathon training, but quickly became preoccupied with being freezing cold and figuring out how I would get off the bike at the trail head .   It all worked out, I got off the bike, Mtn biker Scott got his bike back and I got a car ride to Delaney's to meet the rest of the gang for coffee.  Coffee wasn't enough to heat me up and it took me most of the afternoon to get my core temperature back up.  

And my knee?  Grade 2-3 tear of the MCL and meniscus tear.  Predicted recovery about 3 months (although I have since been told that MCL's heal faster).  Physio is on board to get me to Berlin to run the marathon in September and has me on an extensive program already.  Thanks to my tribe, I also quickly got an MCL brace (thanks Bill Dagg) and a pair of crutches, a cane and an automatic icing cuff contraption from my friend Margo!   Even got priority loading for the bus home from work today, haha.