Gulf Coast Blues -- Sprained Ankle

Well, one week from today, I was planning on competing in Gulf Coast 70.3 triathlon in Panama City Beach, Florida.  Just starting my taper.  Today, I was going to race in a 10k trail run, tomorrow do a 55 mile bike ride to the beach, maybe swim in the water some.  Well, 10 minutes into my race this morning....

I had was running with a couple of girls, and had just passed a guy.  Glanced back to see if the two girls were still with me and...Boohyah!!!!   Rolled my left ankle and heard pop, pop, pop, pop, etc.  Brought my right foot around asap and recovered so I didn't fall.  The girl closest to me said "Nice recovery," and I wished it had been that simple, but I knew the damage had already been done.

Immediately stopped running. Oh wow, that smarts...  ok, that hurts... really hurts.  No use in finishing this race, call it quits and limp back and work on rehab.

Wait a minute, that means I can't do Gulf Coast 70.3 next weekend.  Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit....  To be honest, in between the pain of spraining my ankle and pain of knowing I just scratched myself from Gulf Coast, I seriously had to fight back tears a couple of times.  Wish I could say it was pain from the ankle, but I know it for missing Gulf Coast more than anything else

I have sprained both ankles pretty badly before, and know excatly what I have in store.  As soon as I can stablilize the initial swelling (RICE), I can start working on rehab.  That will really be the painful part.  Breaking up all that scar tissue is really gonna suck.  Time for a little S&M.

I had to to limp over a mile back to the truck.  Lots of people asked if I was ok, and I appreciate their concern.  By the time I got to the truck, my ankle was swole up something fierce.  So I hobbled back home and have been laying on the couch the rest of the day.  So I have cancelled my hotel and e-mailed the race director to see if I can get a refund or deferral.

The rest of the day sucked donkey balls.  I ate comfort food.  Ice cream.  More ice cream, chocolates, chips.  Yum.  Clydesdale division, here I come.  Damn.

I could barely even wiggle my toes Sat, but started working on moving them as much as I could.  Finally by Sat night I could move my foot up and down a fraction.  Sunday am was much better.  I have continuously been working on moving my foot around.  Put on a compression sock and walked around some and ran errands with the sizzler.  Lying here on the couch now watching tv, working on moving the foot arounds.  Rest, ice, elevate, compression.  take a break from ice and compression, then repeat..  Eating more food.