by Erin Odonnell

Created on: January 16, 2007   Last Updated: April 21, 2007

Take a Break
Overcoming injury is more than physical

The pain is indelible: my shoes slap hard against the pavement. The soreness in my left shin amplifies. Each step is like shards of glass sticking into my bone. It's mid July and I'm finishing, what was for me, a grueling eight mile cross-country workout.
I had tolerated this pain since the end of my spring track season in May. Everyday my workouts filled with doubt as the pain increased. I wondered how many miles my leg would remain pain-free. At what mile would I feel that knife-like pain? I was experiencing the unthinkable for any athlete a debilitating injury. My mind was telling me to continue pushing through the pain, but my body couldn't endure it any longer. I tried convincing myself it wasn't anything serious. In seven years of competitive year round running I had never been injured. There was no way this would impede my final collegiate cross country season at Umass Amherst. I had so much I wanted to achieve before ending my career. This was not going to go away on its own. Something was wrong. No more ignoring the problem. Time to get examined by a doctor.

My doctor explained that diagnosing a stress fracture is a complicated process. Although it's possible to see swelling around the bone, in a fresh fracture the break is rarely visible on x-rays. After a couple of weeks of continuous pain, tiny cracks can be seen on the outside of the bone. To my relief, my x-ray results revealed no obvious signs of a break. Skeptical, my doctor ordered a bone scan. Bone scans are expensive but almost always detect the exact location of the fracture in it its early stages.
A stress fracture is a common overuse injury resulting in a partial break of the bone. High milege runners are at risk because they put repeated stress on their bones. "Stress fractures can be caused by over training, a shortage of calcium, or a flaw in your running style or your body structure," says Sports Nutritionist Caren Weiner at the University of Massachusetts. According to Weiner, female athletes have a much higher incidence of stress fractures and it is very important to make sure calcium and estrogen levels are adequate. Weiner describes how stress fractures are similar to a hardboiled egg. After the shell is cracked, the bone breaks. This is one injury you can't not ignore.
As I waited for the results, all I could do was hope. After the longest seven days of wondering, my doctor confirmed my diagnosis: a tibial stress fracture. The tibia

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