Sunday, May 03, 2009

Recreational Drugs and Fell Running

Just to update you on the fallout, as it were– it looks much worse than it feels!  The sickening crunch of bone on rock convinced me that the nose was broken, but I now think  Ed and John’s initial assessment was correct, as I can prod it and sneeze heartily (good trick) without excruciating pain.  So no lasting damage (I hope) but one helluva shiner on the left with a rather less spectacular one on the right- I won’t go into details on the nose front, suffice to say it’s not pretty.  Good taste prevents me from posting an image, thankfully nobody had a camera yesterday.

At the time, my initial reaction of anger and frustration (sorry Ed) with myself for being so damned clumsy, gave way to relief that eyes and teeth were intact and that I wasn’t in too much agony to carry on with the run.  This being an important tester for Ed prior to his Joss.   Ed being just behind me post-impact, did his best to hide his shock, but I could tell he was rattled by my appearance – John having gone through much worse himself, in recent times, looked relieved when he could see I could move and speak coherently.  Thanks again guys – we’re developing a sort of a pattern here, me getting into some sort of scrape and you two gallantly coming to my rescue!  Anyway back to the story… so apart from the blood – of which there was a copious quantity things weren’t so bad.  Not having a mirror, (note to put one in first aid kit!!- which I don’t carry!) I couldn’t see the damage but I knew from the reactions I was getting from strangers that it must be bad,  one guy turned to his buddy as I ran past and just let out a long GEEEEZ!!.  I couldn’t wait to get to the Ladies toilets at the Wasdale Head, where the mirror revealed much less of a horror than my mind had conjured up.  Still managed to scare two geordies to death ‘though when I ran in, almost knocking one of them over to get to the mirror.

Sod’s law would have it that we were out for supper last night, not to a restaurant – that would have been impossible, but over to friends at Belmont.  I phoned ahead, to give a bit of a warning of what to expect, and to give them permission to laugh out loud when I arrived.  All went well, good night was had by all – today’s been pretty sluggish, but I think that’s more to do with the wine rather than the head bashing.  By the way Nicole we could see your place from Steve and Eileen’s conservatory!

Anyway the point is – thank goodness for recreational drugs, a) Ibuprofen, the drug of choice for fellrunners - mitigates the general damage incurred by prolonged violent muscle abuse; followed closely by ProPlus, for a general ‘livener’ – akin to consuming several shots of espresso without the after effects, gets you through the night section of long events and helps on the drive home; but perhaps one of my all time favourites, and only really appreciated by the cognoscenti; c) Sudocreme this is truly awesome stuff for chafing, abrasion, grazes and all general wounds - its healing properties are legend, and having used rather a lot this weekend I can only say it’s just wasted on infant nappy rash!

Which only begs the question – what’s your substance of choice, on or off the hill?

NLN

PS Not out next Sat – Fellsman, just more opportunities to use all of the above!

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