This wasn't the blog I wanted to write...

This wasn’t the blog I wanted to write to kick off.

I’ve been wanting to start this for a while (a blog, substack, random thoughts, musings, whatever it is), but I’ve been waiting for some light bulb moment or pearls of wisdom to pass on, from my many years (do I sound old and wise or an idiot? Actually don’t answer that)…but frankly that was never going to happen (disappointing for you I’m sure, as well as me! Ha ha) and we’d all be waiting a while… so let’s just go for it!

But this is definitely not the blog I wanted to kick off with or to write at all if I’m honest.

So, I have a stress fracture. A nondisplaced, incomplete stress fracture of the distal fibular metadiaphysis. And to be honest a lot more with tendon tears, edemas and the rest. They said, when the report came through, that you only want to see one line (and ideally one that says… “nothing wrong, carry on”), and not an essay, with everything that wasn’t right, which is what I got. Doh!

How did I get here? I have no idea.

I went for my long run on Sunday March 22^nd, and had a great run, and three weeks out from Desert Rats 50km I was getting the mix of excitement and nerves. Then Sunday afternoon, as I was just around the house, my foot and ankle started to cease up and hurt. I tried to run on Monday morning, thinking maybe it would loosen, but stopped pretty soon, having the conversation in my head “do I push through” or “do I stop”, “I can push on, I think” or, “should I stop, is that stupid” and everything that goes around those thoughts and actions as an athlete.

Fast forward a few days and no real improvement (and hadn’t run since), so we got an MRI, and whilst I lay in the machine chanting to myself “please don’t let there be anything wrong, please don’t let there be anything wrong” – the results showed that there was. Bummer!

So, what now, well I’m off running for the next few weeks and limiting everything for the first few days to take as much weight and load off as possible. So, “Hello” boot and cruches! Then we hope to rebuild with cycling and other activities, before bringing the run in. Koru, my springer spaniel puppy (well teenager as he’s 20months, and testing all the boundaries), is going up the walls, as he hasn’t had his usual runs the past couple of weeks (he comes running with me) and I’m going up the walls as well;

1. because he is, and also,

2. I don’t now have my outlet either, which is so important for me mentally and physically (more on that in the future).

Of course, as with any injury, you relive what caused it? What did I do or didn’t do? Especially when it’s a stress fracture, and over use injury. It feels like a failure.

If I’d rolled my ankle, or if I’d run through and on, ignoring pain, then I’d understand. I’d be an idiot but I’d understand. But non of that had happened. Did I do too much volume? If anything, I felt it wasn’t enough for the plans I had. Did I get enough rest? I didn’t feel overly tired or over trained or that it was too much or too hard. Was my eating and fuelling right? I felt I was ticking these boxes in the right way. For sure we can always do better, and it has been a hard time at the moment, and sometime stress just attacks the weakest point? Was that, for me, my fibula?

Also, thoughts of “oh the new girl joins the squad and can’t handle it, because a few months later she’s injured” and of course with the type of injury. These things all play around in my head.

Things happen for a reason, or “things happen….. reason.” What is the story or learning behind this? What is my body trying to tell me that I need to take away? So many questions and very few answers at the moment.

But it’s a stress fracture, and we have to now find the plan forward, and put that in place and execute to the very best of my ability. Because I effing hate being an injured athlete and want to be back running.

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For 2026, I’ve tweaked my focus to a big running goal at the end of the year. More to come about that in future blogs, (and I can assure you even with this hiccup it is still the plan). But it’s almost a full circle (literally) back to running moment, which was where I started sport as a kid. That blonde haired little kid, on the athletics track, sprinting down the straight, jumping into the sand, and eventually running the 400mH, 400m and 800m.

Additionally, then team sports of Netball and Hockey, and then for the past 17years triathlon (5 as an Amateur, 12 as a Professional), but now taking a little detour back to running.

I’ve joined a running group here in Boulder and I’ve met a great group of badass women under the watchful eye of Kathy Butler. What is it about me and British coaches in the USA?! Ha ha! Kathy an ex GBR international, and two time Olympian, and competed over the 5000m, 10000m and marathon (and was a five time NCAA Champion (for my American readers ) She now lives here in Boulder, (well actually up in Nederland) and runs Boulder AC. The group have welcomed me, and really made me feel part of the squad straight away, which has been so valuable in this transition and finding myself again. I was just starting to feel I was “getting my feet under the table”, finding fitness and moving forward.

We are still moving forward, just a little stress fracture road bump in the way. Or as I see it, the mountain I’m trying to scale has got just a little bit higher. But hopefully that means the view from the top when we get there will be even sweeter!

So that mountain, as said more to come in later blogs… oh the suspense to keep you hooked and signing up for this blog! Ha ha!

Sid x