Friday I had a check-up. As it turns out, my doctor is an orthopedic sports doctor so he didn’t seem at all surprised when I asked him if I could start running again. A week off is a long time at this stage of marathon training. He already knew I was training for one when I fell.

He re-fit my cast as the swelling had gone down significantly and it meant that my wrist could now be set straight rather than the unusual angle it had been left in due to the lumps not letting it straighten properly. It feels even more restrictive now which I suppose is a good thing. The texture, the size relative to the rest of me and how cumbersome it feels has led to me referring to my arm as ‘the elephant’.

The doctor said I could start running again as long as I wasn’t in pain before, during or afterwards. I then asked him if I could do a resort dive to under five metres and he said this was also fine (Mr Shallot and I have next weekend away in Cebu and this was something we were quite keen on doing). Not wanting to push my luck, I didn’t ask him if I’d ever be able to play the piano.

This morning I did a 10 km test run without my running partner. While difficult to get started I felt ok except on the hills. At the halfway point, I started to become uncomfortable. My arm felt heavy and odd in its personal sauna. It had started to burn in my wrist area too. Normally pain and discomfort are part of what just needs to be pushed through but given this was coming from an injury rather than me pushing myself physically, I thought better of it.

I ran and walked the rest of the way home thinking about my event.

When I walked in, Mr Shallot noticed that my fingers were swollen to larger than his so he prepared a bowl of ice and water for me to soak them in. I didn’t even notice how cold this first bowl was but the second bowl was freezing.

I’ve decided to give this event a miss.

This means a few things:

• More energy spent on wrist recovery rather than a full-body one.
• At least three additional days in Europe sight-seeing as we won’t have to allow time for my participation in and recovery from the event.
• More time to plan the trip.
• More Sundays spent with my family and friends relaxing.
• Plenty of time to contemplate the sound of one hand clapping.

* Thanks to Marietta Waters for the title to this post. It’s part of the Top Gun soundtrack and the only song of hers I know.