embarrassing injury stories

[SeanC]

I've been rather accident prone recently, which culminated in running straight into a wheelie bin last wednesday whilst reading control descriptions. Fortunately I am quite short or it could have been much more painful.

Anyway you could cheer me up whilst I'm waiting for my bruses to go down by telling us your embarrassing injury stories. Or your friends stories of course.

[Scott]

This sort of thing?

[King Penguin]

In my early days on one leg at Nesscliffe my plan was "run straight ahead until I hit the great big track going left/right, as shown by the big black line". Just in time I realised the big black line was not a track but a cliff, and I was at the top of it. I could very quickly have been at the bottom....

[redkite]

KP, had that issue at the middle ditance champs a couple of years ago. Was looking for a big path just after the start and came accross a great big cliff. Blame it on the eyesight.

Re injuries, always tend to run into lamp posts while reading the map at our winter street league events. Blame this on the eyesight aswell. (now got a long term solution with the boy trainoing to be an optician)

I have also managed to snap two cruciates ligaments in incidents involving no contact.

[Copepod]

I spent a smelly night in a small tent, with not much sleep during Adventure Race World Championship 2007. A racer fell and landed on his (somewhat large) nose, during a foot prologue section on Isle of Rum, despite wearing a helmet - still not quite sure why he was wearing a helmet, but it didn't protect his nose. The medics checked him over, but decided he needed neuro observations overnight - and thought his partner, a race marshal and happened to be a nurse (me) could do this. Sleepmonsters report said he'd broken his nose, which worried his dad reading in south east England.

[NFKleanne]

I am not usually very quick and had just finished a 38 minute orange course - which was really quick considering how hilly it is at Sheringham. Anyway between the finish and down load, I twisted my ankle in a rabbit hole, and injured my back and shoulder aswell resulting in a month off work!

Also at a recent night event, told the kids there was an embankment round here, there was, I started talking at the top, and finished at the bottom.

The have been the occassions when I fell in rabbit hole, and disappered (at speed) into the overgrowth and stayed laying down, as I was laughing to much - much to the concern of my stepson!

[redkite]

Thought of another one

Many years ago we were due to play a big Leics Cup rugby match against Loughborough colleges. Just before leaving home I went to the loo, stood up too quickly once finished and did my back in. Probably tension in my back to due to nerves etc, but it resulted in me being unable to move without a lot of pain for a week or so.

[Lumpy Lycra]

Two days off work with midge bites after the Longshaw Harvesters (2003?) - they'd attacked my eyelids, the only bit of me not smothered in repellent and I literally couldn't open my eyes.

[madmike]

I was out collecting punches from controls on the POC in Wendover a couple of weeks ago and couldn't be bothered to put my o-shoes back on after the guys and girls had finished, so I ran in my road shoes; moreover, I was also too lazy to double tie the laces so was running with big loops in my laces. Worked OK at first but then, while running downhill at speed (for me) I managed to put my left foot into the loop on my right shoe effectively tying my feet together. I am bruised, grazed and ricked my back and the half second it took me from tying the feet together to hit the ground was the longest half second there's ever been. I could see it coming and couldn't do a thing about it

[mappingmum]

I managed to put my left foot into the loop on my right shoe effectively tying my feet together.

blimey Mike, you must either have exceptionally small feet, long shoe laces or tie laces with HUGE loops.

that's no mean feat.

[madmike]

boom boom very good Mapping Mum

answer is:

avverage feet, long laces, very big loops, sprinkled with inherent laziness and topped with a slice of complete bufoonery

[Adventure Racer]

Well I suppose it has to be running full speed into the end of a railing in the Bristol Rat Race a couple of years ago (I have a variety to choose from ). Despite popular opinion I wasn't actually looking at a map at the time, but looking sideways checking out a short cut. The problem being that the railing had been bent over into a point which is what I ran into, rather than the normal straight edge.

Not sure the incident itself was so embarrassing, but given where the injury was (put it this way, an inch to one side it could have been a lot more painful), getting examined in A&E was a bit. Managing to put myself out of the event within 3 minutes of the start of a 3 hour stage, with 6 hours more the following day, wasn't very clever either. The silliest thing though was that for an injury which wasn't visible (even if anybody did look there), and didn't really hurt that badly after a couple of days, I had to get AA recovery home and a lift into work for a couple of days as I couldn't lift my left foot off the floor to use the clutch in my car!

[Big Jon]

Many years ago I was checking controls in a forest, happily running along looking at the map when the ground suddenly hit me. I lay stunned for a while trying to work out what had happened. I moved one leg - OK, the other leg wouldn't move, no pain so I looked at it - there was a snare wrapped round my O shoe. I'd stepped straight into it and it had worked a treat! No injuries but more than a little shaken.

[NickC]

A few years ago putting out controls, carrying canes, one slipped fell between my legs, tripped me up and..., I fell on the others cracking two ribs.

Same happened a couple of years later at southern army area, tripped over hidden metal spike going into no.1 (a pit). Fell into pit, saw face heading for another metal spike, twisted to avoid hitting my eye (caught the side and needed it "sticking" together), but bounced off a tree stump - same two ribs. Visited same hospital my partner had after JK accident at a previous event - at least we knew how to get there!

[Mrs H]

At an NGOC event in January about 6 or 7 years ago I was running into the low afternoon sun when I suddenly found myself being propelled backwards at some speed. I'd run into a wire fence completely eclipsed in the low sun (mercifully not barbed) in true cartoon fashion which had elicited an unprecedented four letter word expletive from me.

I had a very interesting triple parallel set of bruises across my upper body