Running with a broken elbow (or, "It's just a flesh wound!", or, "Come back here! I'll bite your legs off!")

Yes, you can!

When I broke my elbow at Zumbro (story in a future post), I googled "running with a broken elbow" and "running with a broken arm" the same night.  There's not a lot out there on the internets about running with a full arm cast (though a number of stories about short arm casts), so I thought it might be helpful to share my experience.  The summary?  Yes, it can be done.  If you're a little nuts.

At my first appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, I asked "Can I run?"  It was 5 weeks before Superior 50K, my first ultra, and I was not going to miss it, by golly.  She assured me that I could run as soon as it was in a cast, a week after surgery.  Before, that, low/no impact exercise was fine.

That curvy piece off to the left is supposed to be attached to something.

With my arm in a giant splint and a doctor's blessing, I was at the YWCA bright and early the very next morning.  I hit the elliptical [I believe that may be a first for me! I didn't even die of boredom], then cranked the treadmill up to 15% grade and walked, briskly, for 30 minutes up a big imaginary hill.  Hey, it beat another half-hour of elliptical.

As an aside, you want some funny looks and great conversations, go do a really sweaty workout at your local Y or running trails with a full arm splint or cast on.  Had a great talk with a guy who broke BOTH wrists and several fingers two years ago in a bike accident, recovered, and decided to bike across the country.  He concluded his story, "So you WILL get better! Hang in there!"  Oh yes I will.

My awesome orthopod fixed me up four days post injury with a ginormous plate and six screws.

Talk about race hardware!

I enjoyed two days of frequent naps, quality cat time, and Vicodin, then swapped the good drugs for Tylenol and hit the Y.  Still in a splint, I biked, elliptical'd, and did lower-body strength work (lunges, squats, situps, whatever I could think of).  Got into a cast on post op day 6 and the next day I ran a mile, on the indoor track at the Y.  It was slow and awkward, but nothing hurt.  The next day I ran 5.4 miles, no slower than usual.  (There's nothing like an 10 day, unplanned, radical taper to help your speed).  The 50K was ON!

On post op day 10, 4 days after getting my cast, I did the last big training run before Superior -- 25 miles at Afton State Park.  I wore my Hoka Stinsons, my go-to trail shoe at that point.  I carried a Velcro luggage strap in case I needed a field sling.  (I didn't).  Reasoning that I tie up my only functional hand with a handheld, I exchanged my usual Ultimate Direction bottle for a new-out-of-the-package Nathan Intensity hydration pack.  (Luckily, it worked magnificently the whole day).  I filled it with Nuun, stuffed 900 kcal of snacks into the front pockets (Shot Bloks, Gu and Roctane, Picky Bars), and I was off, in 39 degrees and crisp air, at 5:30 am.  A 30-minute out-and-back while waiting for others to get there, then the 15.5 mile race loop, then a very slow and gimpy solo 7 miles back around Africa Loop/Back 40.

It went pretty well, considering my entire dominant arm was in a massive fiberglass cast.  A little IT band problem on the opposite hip in the first 3 miles or so went away fairly quickly.  It came back in the last 5 miles with a vengeance, and I mostly walked the last 3 miles or so, occasionally jogging a segment or two.  I've never had IT band problems to speak of before or since.  I theorize they related to decreased arm swing on the right because of the added weight of the cast.  I had a pretty serious bonk at the end of the full loop, around mile 18, but got a second wind after eating an entire Picky Bar.  It was very difficult to get back up and head back out for the last 7 miles, but I did it.

I was in the cast for 3 weeks and ran over 75 miles in it.  It was funky, and awkward, but it worked okay.  I always felt like I would feel worse if I didn't run, so I just kept going for runs in it.  When I got it off and graduated to the articulated arm brace, it was a relief, but also a triumph.  Nothing was going to stop me from doing my 50K.

Graduated to a brace. I added the Superior bling myself.