A week ago, while on a century ride, I crashed and fractured my left thigh (femoral neck). Dog OK, bike not bad, me not so good. Subsequent surgery, three screws and six weeks on crutches was the outcome.
I qualified for Kona, actually twice (IMF & IMCdA) for 2004 and wonder if any of you had to cancel because of med reasons. If so, where you able to get an entry for the following year? I doubt I’ll qualify again any time soon.
Re fracture, my Doc said: no weight on the leg for 6 weeks, no swimming either because of infection concern. Any of you had a similar experience? Any Orthopaedics amongst you?
Bummer dude, sorry to hear about your crash & subsequent DNS in Kona. On the plus side, you’re still here to tell us about it, and will live to race again. That’s gold right there.
As for deferred slots, I’m afraid I have no idea. If you were able to qualify twice this year however, what would prevent you from doing so another year? I can see how landing a roll down slot as a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but it apears that you’ve got the speed and the skills to get out there and earn your ticket. Frankly, I think you’ll qualify again pretty much when you want to.
That is a real bummer. Sorry to hear that. I’m in a similar boat, I suppose. Not nearly as bad as your situation because I’m still going. However, I injured my knee back in June at Buffalo Springs. Kept running on it until July when I could no longer handle the pain. I haven’t really run since, but as I’ve paid for the trip and such, so I’m still going to Kona. I’ve been able to swim and bike. I started running a bit this week (Monday was 1 mile, Tue was 1.5 and today was 2.5). I figure if I can add .5 mile per day I can get up to about 10 miles before leaving for HI. Hopefully that’s enough for me to be able to walk the damn marathon. Hope you heal up fine.
Yup, agree with the weight bearing thing, but if the wound is sealed and dry at 10 days or so after you could plead to go swimming. In my opinion, once the wound is healed there really isn’t any more infection risk now than after 6 weeks.
This is a bad injury - you may have heard of the risks of nonunion and avascular necrosis. Treat it very carefully, as this is one of those ones that doing too much before it’s healed may cause a permanent problem.
I’m not an orthopaedic surgeon, but when I was a chiropractic student I worked my way thru college as an orthopaedic technition in Canada’s busiest emergency department. I was the guy that would have helped the PM’s pull you off the ambulance and then set you up in the traction bed pre-op. I watched a lot of the ortho operations, a great experience for a student and if you needed post op cast, I was the guy who put it on. I saw a lot of hip fractures and it can be a nasty injury, especially in older people.
Bottom line is you’re out of training for awhile. Not meaning to be harsh but this is the same injury that happened to Beloki and he still hasn’t fully recovered. Maybe you can come back and requalify for Kona, but for now you have to concentrate more on rehab and then recreational tri related physical activities before getting back to where you were…
Initially follow the advice of your ortho guy. Then find yourself a good sports/rehab PT or chiro and build yourself back slowly.