At a race this weekend I separated my calf muscle from the achilles heel (so sayeth my doctor friend) while hammering up some hills. When I got to T2 I was in a lot of pain but I didn’t think I was injured, so I took off on the run anyway. About a mile in I knew something was way wrong cause I could barely keep 10 min/mi and my body went “clunk” from my stride being all fubar. I decided to stay on the course and finish anyway, and now today I am second guessing this decision.
I am curious as to what criteria some of you use to decide when enough is enough. I haven’t ever DNF’ed and am not sure what it would take (aside from passing out and being dragged away).
Addendum: This was at the Collegiate National Championships in Lake Havasu City, AZ on Sat Apr 16th, so it was a big race.
Interesting question, I’m not sure what I would do. If it was just a local race and I was really hurt, I think I would stop. If it is Kona, or some other race I had to bust my ass quilifying for, I finish unless they physically remove me from the course.
ok, let’s see…
your achille hurts like hell, and you run and run and run in Kona until the end where it’s partially torn…after surgery and 6 months of PT, let’s reassess…
chris legh (the hero of I-never-dnf-triathletes) runs despite being in a lot of pain, collapses and have part of his lower intestine remove, lots of subsequent health issues after that and several times was coughing up blood after that incident…you have a super athlete who could have a fantastic palmares but doesn’t because he went to far (that’s my opinion anyway)…
Doesn’t matter what race it is. It’s your health…take care of it. When it’s serious, you don’t risk your health for triathlon.
As of Saturday, your post sums up my new attitude.
I have 6-8 weeks of healing and rehab to swallow now and that makes me vey unhappy. I want to be one of those guys that’s running Ironman at 60+ cause I love this sport; but that won’t happen if my head isn’t on straight.
I’ve never come to the “is this just pain or am I injured” point in a race, and I made the wrong decision this time, but never again.
Read my follow-up post, I just went through a learning experience. If everyone had apriori knowledge of everything, well then what would be the purpose of doing anything? Thus the post, I am curious about how other people learned or know about their limits.
by the way, I trained and race with an injured achille to the point it actually snapped…so I am talking because I have already made that mistake (and others too)…
with experience, you’ll be able to feel the difference between hurting because racing hurts and an injury that could cost a lot health wise.
good luck in your recovery and lifetime of triathlon
I must agree, taking care of your body is the most important thing.
When I think about the whole issue of being “heroic” (a word I don’t really like) regarding DNF, I think of it in terms of finishing when you are dead tired, don’t want to go on, etc, etc, not about finishing to the detrement of your body/health. For me, when I say I will never DNF, I mean that I will never train for months for a race, get there, have a bad swim or bike, and decide to drop out. That is the stupidest thing in the world in my mind. If I’m hurt, that’s a different story.
I remember once, several years ago, some friends and I had driven 2-3 hours to a crit (I hate crits). Two of us (myself included) were in the cat 4 race. We were both quickly outclassed by the rest of the field, and a big gap formed quickly. My friend dropped out. I stayed in for the whole race, getting lapped by the pack once, and hammering the whole time. When the race was over, I asked my friend why he dropped out. “Well”, he said, “it just turned into a hard solo 20 mile ride, and I can do that at home any time I want.” So his reasoning was that he skipped a good workout because it was a workout he could do anytime? So instead of getting a good ride in, he paid his money, wasted his day, and got no exercise? To me, that is the most ridiculous thing.
It’s really tough to figure out when to quit a race. My knee acted up at mile 4 of a marathon once. I tried to get it to loosen up and start working right for about 7 miles, when it became clear that it would not so I DNFed. It was a lot harder for me to quit that marathon than to finish any race I have ever done. A friend had her leg start to hurt in the same race and did not drop out even when she had to walk the last 10 miles because it hurt too much to run. It took me a couple months before the knee worked right. It’s been a couple years, and my friend still has not recovered from the femur stress fracture that was causing the pain. So, I made the right decision on that day.
On the other hand, I doubt that I would have quit had that been my first marathon. If it had been my first IM, I probably would have walked, shuffled, whatever, to finish. I did finish a rugby match 50 minutes after tearing my MCL in one of my knees. I think the dividing line for me is whether finishing a race will cause permanent or more serious injury. But, it’s really hard to tell whether it will when you are racing. Or even training, for that matter. After all, taking a risk and pushing through pain is part of most sports.
As my old high school football coach often told me “You have to learn the difference between pain and injury.”
It is a very difficult decision. For me if the pain is something i have not felt before i would stop. If it is not a new pain and i know what is causing it i willwork around it and finish.
As someone else said if it was an IM that i trained for 6 months for I would stay on the course until they placed me in the ambulance. If it was a local sprint I would never have left T2.
Unfortunately there is no white and black answer. This is the grayest of gray areas. You just need to understand and know your body and listen to what it is telling you.
i think long term vision is important, unless the only race you care about for the rest of your life is the race you’re doing at the moment.
IMO it is not worth it to push it, otherwise the recovery will be longer and potetially the injury could keep you racing from ever again. that is not worth it–unless of course you are doing the race of a lifetime and don’t care. such an event doesn’t exist for me, as I prefer to continue to participate for as long as I can.
when I did the HIM last year (injured) it was such a crappy race day for me. in looking back, choosing to do the run just made me more hurt and I had to go in rehab again. I regret not stopping after the bike. I should have just gone home right then and there and saved myself from further injury, pain, and discouragement. When you’re really hurt (and I’m not talking about the pain of racing), it’s smartest to pull out and respect your body. After all, that body is going to have to live with you for as long as you’re alive. It’s not worth it.
