Tell us about your first running injury (Read 808 times)

Where you a new runner? Experienced? Did you do somethign stupid to make it happen, or was it just one of those things?

Came down with shin splints after running for about 3 years. Turns out it was my shoes and the last pair of Nikes I ever ran in. I changed shoes and they immediately went away.

Shin splints within the first few months of starting running. I always got them playing basketball in HS (man was that a long time ago), and still get them from time to time. I've gotten pretty good at knowing how far I can push them before taking some time off, and discovering "The Stick" and good calf stretches havae helped a bunch. Luckily, I read a lot of other people's stories about ITBS from the crown of the road, so I started alternating sides before my mileage got high enough for that to be an issue.

I remember a bad case of shin splints at one point. I think it was my first year running and I had decided to do the Disney marathon the next January. I ran too far too fast and I definitely didnt have the right shoes. During the marathon I developed an ITB issue that took a few months to get rid of too. Changing to shoes that were right for me helped a ton on both fronts.

All my injuries were due to improper training. Runners knee. Started running in Aug '04 and registered for 1st 5K on Halloween of that same year. Built up to 3 miles too soon. I ran the 5K (medicated, stoooooooopid)-it was so hilly! Took a month off after that and was okay. Injury free '05 (and ran my fastest that year??? Very annoyed by that right now.) ITBS in '06 from running in the wrong shoes for 2 years while base building. tore a calf muscle in '07 due to over training. pulled a hamstring in '07 due to running hills too aggressively. '08 is the year of running injury free! This is my slowest year yet...but it has to pay off eventually, right? I am hoping to PR in May in a 1/2 marathon. What about you Mr Inertia? Any injuries to speak of?

My first running injury came from getting hit by a car. It only sidelined me for a few days; I got winged in the ankle. It was a combination of both the driver and myself being stupid. (full story here) My first serious injury came from breaking my ankle when I fell down a mountain during a cross country race in high school. It was the same ankle that got hit by a car. In fact, all of my ankle injuries have been that one. It was the week between our conference and state championship meets when we traditionally raced against another small school and 2 of the large schools in the state to get some good competition. It was absolutely pouring, and when I was talking to my coach mid-day he said that if the rain didn't let up he wasn't going to risk running the varsity squad. No sooner said than the faucet got turned off and the sun came out. During the race, I made a move near the top of the hill to bring myself up near the front. I stepped on a wet leaf that (I think) was covering a hole in the trail. In went my ankle, on went the rest of my body, and the next thing I know I'm sliding past the couple of guys that were ahead of me on my face. I decided that was a bad idea and managed to get my shoulder down so that I rolled the rest of the way down, off the trail and down down down until I was back on the trail at the bottom. One of my teammates hurdled me, two guys from the other teams made an effort to step on my with their spiked shoes, and then I managed to roll myself off the trail until somebody could come help me down. I refused to get my ankle x-rayed until after the state meet since I was hoping to run still, but my foot looked like the Elephant Man's so I couldn't run. I went to the doctor a few days later and they confirmed it was broken. I also missed my first Manchester Road Race in CT on Thanksgiving that year because my mother wouldn't let me "run" it on crutches. My first over training injury came in college. High school saw 35 miles per week, the summer between HS and college I got up to around 60 miles per week, and in college I averaged 85 miles per week including off seasons for the first few years, maxing out at a bit over 120 miles per week a few times. Junior year it caught up to me and I had a stress fracture in one leg and tendonitis in the opposite knee.

My first MAJOR injury was ITBS caused by stupidity and being a slave to schedule. During the middle of a marathon training schedule, I broke my big toe in an unrelated accident. I took off 4 weeks from running, but spent an equivalent amount of training time on an elliptical. When my toe was healed, I thought I could jump right back into my training schedule (which happened to be a 20-miler that weekend.) At mile 6 I started to fell some pain. By mile 10 both knees hurt like hell. Between mile 10 and 17 I limped along at a slow pace almost in tears. At mile 17 I finally did the sensible thing and gave up. FORTUNATELY, the only long-term damage I did that day was ITBS in one knee.

Shin splints that I ran through straight into tibial stress fracture. That was in my first few months of running. I was stupid. I had to take about two months off and it took me another couple of months to slowly work back to where I'd been. I was stupid but it also taught me some valuable lessons: listen to your body and slow down. Other than a brief bout of Achilles tendinitis I haven't had a running injury since.