Damaged – the season stutters to a halt

I’ve been happy with my form of late. Despite my training being erratic with work, my long runs have hit the mark as far as distances were concerned, and the short runs I have done have been at a decent pace. I’ve been aiming towards the Southside Six 16 miler for a wee while now and really looking forward to taking it on. Aim was for sub 2 hours, but if it went right on the day and I ran to my best I could see me troubling 1.55. Great weekend’s training last weekend, short stuff at a good pace on Saturday then a good 10 miler on the Sunday. All going to plan. Until. Yes an until, and this is a cracker. I was brushing my teeth, and sneezed and once again put my back out. You wouldn’t believe it. I knew straight away it was a bad one. I have a weak back and have had a lot of problems over the last few years with it. I’ve been careful with it, but sneezing doing the damage? Ouch. So I haven’t run since and missed the SS6. I will also miss what was to be my final race of the season next week at the Kelpies 5k too, but that’s how it goes. I’ve had a brilliant year and just need to concentrate on resting, getting the back better, then building up for London.

I have to laugh about it though, getting injured sneezing. That’s impressive. I have done some crackers in the past. When I was getting back into running I was trying to shed a load of weight after stopping smoking and Elaine bought me a cross trainer. I broke my toe moving it and was out for a couple of months:) Running with jogscotland I stood on a manhole and it slipped down and I went over on my ankle. Out for rest of the block. When I was playing amateur football I was out for a spell after breaking my hand and a few of my fingers after falling on the astroturf straight from kick off. Got me thinking of some other sports injuries that I had heard of. The footballer Kirk Broadfoot was hospitalised after an incident with a microwaved egg.

John McGinn when with St Mirren was speared by a corner flag thrown by teammate Steven Thompson.

Alex Stepney of Man Utd famously broke his own jaw by shouting too loud at his defenders. Former Essex and England man Derek Pringle, withdrew from a 1980s Test match when he put his back out typing a letter. One of my favourites is Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlastic, who was stretching in her Berlin hotel room when she stood up and smacked her head against a door post. She managed to compete with a bandaged head but only after the doctor originally stitching her up did her back in and had to be helped away while another medic stepped in.