Trail run, fall, Broken Ribs, Oh My!

Sooner or later, if you do enough trail runs, you are going to fall. It is just a matter of when, where and how badly, but you will fall. To be perfectly fair most falls really aren’t that bad. I mean, at most you usually walk or run away with a few scratches or bruises, but are still able to carry on and finish the run without much fanfare. So if you know that you are going to fall sometime why on earth would you want to do trail running?

As I said earlier most falls have minimal impact as far as injury goes. As athletes we seem to develop a natural way of protecting ourselves when we fall. I have fallen on the road as well as the trail. Admittedly I have not really fallen all that often when you consider how many miles I have run in the last 14 years.

There is just something about being out in nature, running the trails, keeping your mind occupied with reading the ground for each step that gives you a feeling of freedom like no other. It is like you are one with nature and you're home at last! A true sense of belonging with all of your senses at a heightened level! It is the call of the wild!

Yesterday I did my second trail run of the year as my first was on New Year’s Day. The run on New Years was mostly on dirt road, but the unevenness makes me count it as trail and there was some small part of it that was on single-track trail. It was not particularly challenging in that there were really no rocks, tree roots and bushes to navigate.

Here I am five months later doing what would be called a technical trail run. At least 75% of the trail was technical in nature, meaning that one has to read the trail for foot placement, adjust balance regularly and constantly be alert for tree roots, rocks and uneven ground. This is especially important on the downhill sections as momentum has it’s own set of risks.

I had about a 40-minute late start from what I had planned, because even though I had set my alarm for a 4:45am wake-up, I had forgotten to arm it! I woke up at almost 5:30 on the nose and quickly went into action getting ready. That was the time I had hoped to be at the ranger station to get a same day wilderness permit. It seems that whenever I start a trip in a hurried manner that somehow that carries over into the whole day. Note to self: Slow down and relax. It isn’t worth the stress. Anyway I got to the trailhead about 30 minutes later than I had planned, but had to drive and rush faster then I had wanted to.

It was a good 10 degrees warmer than I was expecting when I got to the trailhead at 6900’ elevation. Still plenty cool but it didn’t take me long to break into a full sweat with the altitude and incline of the trail. As usual the first 10 – 20 minutes of altitude running and or hiking brings a bit of an uncomfortable feeling in the lungs. Even though my heart rate was not all that high my lungs felt like I was running a 5k. I knew that my body would soon acclimate and that this feeling would diminish in time.

I arrived at Horse meadows, about 1.1 miles into the trek feeling ready for a very short break. I paused just long enough to get a fairly long drink from my bottle and continued the upward journey. Soon I was into the only open spot where there was no tree cover at all for the next half-mile or so. This part of the trail was also pretty rocky and made it a little harder to run so I just walked most of it at a fairly fast clip. After half a mile I entered one of the more dense parts of the trail as far as plant life. Very lush and green even in this very dry year. I stopped to take a photo or two.

Next stop was the scenic lookout of the backside of Mt San Gorgonio, also called “Old Greybacks,” just past the summit of Poop-out Hill. It really isn’t that tough of a hill as far as hiking goes, although I only ran a small portion of it! Here I stopped to take another picture of “Old Greybacks.” This was a little more than 2 miles into the trek.

 Next came a very runnable mile section of trail as it is mostly flat and or slightly downhill. I really enjoy this section of trail both out and back. Soon I came to a steeper section that most runners will hike on the way up and some will even have trouble navigating it while running downhill. It is a very technically fun section to run down.

At about 3.6 miles I came to a split in the trail. Strait ahead is the way to Dollar Lake and San Gorgonio summit. To the left is a break spot called “South Fork Meadows” and here the trail continues up to Dry Lake and SanG summit. There is a bit of a creek to ford at this point and a couple more just beyond it. This year it was no trouble as we have had a very mild winter and very low snowfall. From here it is another 2 miles to the far end of Dry Lake, and overall a steeper climb with not as many runnable parts of the trail on the ascent.

About 45 minutes later I reached my destination of Dry Lake Campground (9100’) and here I took a picture of Dry Lake with SanG in the background. Some years the lake still has water in it this time of the year and other times it is just a mud hole or even dry like this year. I show a picture of this year and another picture taken just one week earlier from another year for contrast.

I had a bit of a chat with several campers that had just broken camp and were making their way back down. Seems that almost everyone in the mountains are in a good mood and very cheerful. I petted their dog that was a very friendly Pit Bull mix and we all started back. I was soon out of sight and hearing distance, as I did not have a 35-45 pound pack on my back.

10 minutes later I tripped but caught myself by running very quickly to get back my balance. I thought to myself that I was doing pretty good as most people would probably have fallen on that one. Then 5 minutes later I was sprawled out on the trail trying to catch my breath and get my composure as I was pretty shaken up. I had taken a very sudden fall at about a 9-minute per mile pace on an 8% grade section of trail. I remember thinking, as I was going down, that I needed to try and avoid the rock in the middle of the trail, but it all happened too fast and I landed on my right side on top of a rock which was about the size of a big loaf of bread rising out of the ground about 3-4 inches. It took me a good minute to get to my feet, and then I walked about 10 feet to a big rock to sit down and gather myself. After about another minute or two I decided to try and continue running. I knew I possibly had broken ribs but they could also just be bruised. I ran another 1.5 miles back to South Fork Meadows. I tried running down the steep section just past the meadows but the pounding was just too much and I had to slow down and walk. I did manage to run a little bit of this section and then some more relatively flat but soon I just knew I had broken my ribs and decided I needed to walk the rest of the way back to the car.

Even walking was tough, as every time I had to stabilize myself from lateral movement it hurt. I made it back to the car then back down the hill to the edge of Mentone and Redlands. I knew it was going to be a long wait at urgent care, so I decided to get something to eat at Mc Donald’s.  Not something I would normally do these days! LOL.

After what seemed like an eternity I was x-rayed and then saw the doctor who confirmed I had two broken ribs. She said that one was completely fractured but only displaced a little and should heal well. The other above it had a hairline fracture and would heal nicely. She also said I needed to make sure that I took several deep breaths every hour, even though it hurt, to make sure I did not get pneumonia as the shallow breathing would make me more susceptible to that. Then she asked if I wanted her to clean up the scratches that I had on both shins. I told her no, that the one on the left was from the day before from a giant Frisbee and the other was from today but that I would clean and dress it. She laughed and asked, “How old are you?” She then looked at my chart again smiling as I said 60. She then shook her head and muttered, “awesome!”

A week later I saw my doctor who let me know that the radiologist reported that I actually had 3 broken ribs. 

So what do I take away from this? Number one is that I will certainly trail run again as soon as possible. Number two I should have toned it down after the first stumble, especially since it was my first technical trail run of the year. Live and learn!

Happy Trails,

Russ