A Meaningful Scar

Good morning Everyone! My name is Jay Shanahan and I am going to be telling you about one of my many injuries that I have experienced in my running career. This past fall, I had my junior year Cross Country Season. At the time, my fastest 5k was a 16:04 and I was really itching to breaking that 16:00 barrier. It was the end of September and I had two meets that week, the Durham City County Meet and Great American in Cary. Now, I was more excited for the Great American race but I still wanted to win the Durham City County Race. The day before the race, there was an absolute downpour. I mean it was CRAZY! There was at least two inches of water across our entire XC course. Everyone on my team hopped on the treadmills and went home, but I really love running in the rain. I guess it's the cool air and the soothing sound of thousand of water droplets hitting the ground that is just relaxing to me. Anyways, I was on the first mile of this run, when I tripped over a hidden root on the trail. I wiped out and had a huge cut on my knee. It didn't hurt too bad so I continued my run and then finished at my school. The moment I walked into the trainers room, they sat me down and rushed to get to work. I guess I hadn't looked at my knee during the run but there was a deep gash under my kneecap and my leg was bright red. They wrapped it up, iced it, and I was eventually told I could leave. Over those next few days, I ran atrociously at the City County meet but reached my goal in breaking 16:00 with a 15:44 5k at Great American! I may still have a big purple scar on my knee, but I was able to achieve my goal despite the injury!

If any of you guys have any great running stories, email them to me at 21shanahanj@gmail.com and I will post them for others to see!