In 20 days, I’m scheduled to do Ironman Italy (I live in USA).
Yesterday, I crashed.
No head injury.
No broken bones.
But, a lot of road rash.
Plus, 8 stitches on right forearm (where my elbow rests on pads).
Plus, 2 missing finger nails.
Plus, a lot of bike damage (extent still to be determined).
Hips and below are without issue and I ‘could’ run today if it weren’t for the pain reliever medications I’m currently on.
Do you think I should still be set on planning to race?
Should I consider bagging it?
Not sure how long it takes to recover from stitches / road rash to be able to race.
1997 one week before Ironman Canada.
Was riding home from work in Penticton (I had forgotten to put a helmet on) and was checking out the Spinergy Wheels I had put on the day before. As I looked up my front wheel hit a drain on the road and swerved right clipping the curb and down I went. I tried to hold my head up for as long as possible but after skipping along the sidewalk grinding my right side into the ground,momentum caught up and I slammed my head into the ground.
I got up and of course checked the bike to see if it was okay and that is when the blood started streaming down over the bike. I got back on and rode the short distance home and called The Hogs Breath Cafe downtown in Penticton as I knew one of my doctor mates would be there for the Saturday ride, I told him what had happened and he drove to my place (The House of Iron) and took me to his surgery. Six stiches in my head and patches on the deep.deep gouges out of both elbows,both knees my right thigh and right ankle,
After he dropped me off I discovered a lump under my right eyebrow so I called him at the coffee shop again and he told me I most likely had a rock embedded in there. He told me to get a pair of pilers and open them up to the width of the lump and push hard against my skull. The skin moved around the bump and I soon had the little rock in the pilers and pulled it out.
The next day I am at the coffee shop and everyone is talling me what a bummer it was that I would be out of IMC after all the training but old Doc Hardwicke just said “The is nothing physically wrong with him.He can do the race if he wants,I’ll just have to help him out after the swim with his bandages,” We were like “WTF!!!”
Anyway,the following week Doc Hardwicke bandaged all my wounds after covering them in Vaseline and said" More then likely these bandages will come off with your wetsuit. I’ll put new ones on after the swim if I have to" He was the race doctor for IMC and you gotta love a medico that is also and athlete.
Long story short I did the race and thankfully it was a cold rainy day which dulled the pain. I set an Ironman personal best that day and finished in 9:52.(Turned down the Kona rolldown slot), I have 13 scars from that crash and so much skin was taken off those patches never tan anymore.
True story.
Given you are 20 days out and it’s an overseas race I would be saying yeah do it.
You will likely get a little more sore over the next few days and occasionally that can unmask an injury you didn’t know you had.
The elbow sutures will be out in 10-14 days, you can train on a road bike over that period and won’t bother them much.
Definitely plenty of time to be over the road rash.
The fibers nails are painful but otherwise should not cause any major issues and all should be settled by then.
The bike……well……that may be cutting it fine depending on your mechanic.
Have to remember that with IM training you can’t really get much fitter at this point, you would have been close to peaking and starting the taper?
Swimming: may need a few days for the sutures to settle before you embark on that. Some would argue you need to keep it dry but it may be possible to swim with it.
Bike: roadie for now
Running: sounds like you can run as needed
Take these first few days easy. Just do some gentle mobility work etc.
I crashed 2 weeks prior to IM CA, fractured my scapula. I emailed Ironman and they allowed me to shift to IM Arizona, about 5 weeks later. Might be worth asking
Amnesia, Thank you for the detailed response. It is amazing how the body heals itself. I look forward to preparing to race. My brother in law is the bike shop manager, and he is tending to my bike to ensure it’ll be race ready. No frame damage, just bar, aero, brake levers, shifter, and cable damage.
And yes, I was 76 miles into an 80 mile ride that was my last major training session prior to peak / taper. I’m ready, and I’ll continue to get ready over these next couple weeks allowing my body to recover.
Update…
Accident +4 = T-17…
Some new minor bruising in legs that didn’t exist right after the accident (not worried about it).
Some deep purple bruising at base of one of the road rash. No physical pain to touch. Just annoying road rash pain.
Some phantom neuropathic itching with road rash.
Road rash is oozing.
It’s difficult to imagine that I’ll be race ready (recovered).
I haven’t gone running yet, and I’m taking it slow.
My bike is at the shop and will be race ready early next week (parts being delivered this week).
I’ll be in Italy in 2 weeks.
In 15 years of riding 2000+ miles per year (whether racing or taking the year off of racing), I’ve never crashed! This is a first for me.
What a record. I’ve been riding about a similar number of years, not as much distance, but suffered most of my crashes early on. As the years push up I get more and more nervous about larger crashes like this. Good luck with the race! As others have said the road rash will be healed up by the time your in Italy.
If you do decide to do the race I would be careful about the swimming. Getting cuts and road rash wet is an invitation to all kinds of problems. Maybe get some stretch bands and do some dryland swim workouts. You need to keep the muscles responding properly. I made the mistake of not doing that when I had some Road Rash before an IM and utterly trashed the swim by at least 10 minutes. Didn’t go in the water for slightly over two weeks and the swim was just nasty.
Update:
Accident + 12, T- 9
My body is healing itself! As ‘you’ predicted, my road rash is better. I still feel a little tightness of skin in my shoulder, but I’m good to go as it relates to road rash.
My sutures were removed and my skin is holding together. Another 8+ days of recovery and I’ll be ready to jump back in the water for the 2.4 mile swim. (I haven’t swam yet and likely won’t before the race)
I’ve run a few times without incident.
I had to buy a new bike (old bike had expensive damage and bike was 14 years old). I kept my old seat and was able to set it up with virtually the same geometry. My sutures are on my right forearm where my arm rests on aero bars, so my test rides haven’t been fully relaxed on right aero bar. Been able to ride 3 times on the new bike to test it out and make minor adjustments as necessary.
(Purpose of follow up posts is to possibly help another in the future who has doubts about upcoming race immediately after a crash)
Ready to race soon!
Cheers