Injury Doesn’t Stop Langhans from running at Adelaide 24hr Festival
Contributed by Geoffrey Langhans, AURA member (Happy Valley, SA)
Adelaide 24 Hour Festival, ADELAIDE (SA), 10-11 June 2023
The Adelaide 24 Hour.
Some races mean more to an individual than others. For me, this was that race. In October 2020 I tackled the 12 hour event in what was my first official ultra. It was a hot but great day, tackling lap after lap of the Uni Loop opposite Adelaide Zoo. I went in with no expectations. I left with a third place trophy and a new definition of what was possible.
My commitments meant that I had to wait until the 2023 edition to return to the 2.2km gravel path but just 7 weeks out from race day I hit my first significant injury setback. I’d driven to Falls Creek for the Alpine Challenge ultra and 3 minutes after we had started, my race was over. I had set out too fast and didn’t leave enough space between me the runner in front to properly assess the trail before my feet were upon it. My right foot hit a rock that rolled and my ankle with it. Instead of letting myself tumble and probably just losing a bit of skin, I powered through the step with the sole of my foot pointing parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular to it. Goodbye ligaments. Not that I knew the finer details in that moment. I knew it hurt, I knew my race was over and I cried. I cried again when I received the MRI report. I now know the names of a number of specific ligaments in the human ankle, as well as an effective way to tear them.
Biweekly physio sessions and daily rehabilitation exercises commenced and pleasingly, improvement was obvious in every appointment. What was also obvious but unwelcome was the rapid weight gain. Post-injury I had immediately cut my energy intake in half knowing that without a heavy training load I wouldn’t need as much fuel. I underestimated just how much my ability to maintain a healthy weight relied on running, and how it permitted me to have a diet that would make any nutritionist cringe. This was a forced opportunity to improve my diet or have to deal with further consequences than just a diminished aerobic capacity. I started eating better and controlling my portions (a huge challenge for someone who loves the sensation of being full) so that when I could return to training there would not be significantly more of me than there was pre-injury.
My physio was great and I slowly started to walk further and then jog slowly on a treadmill. As the torn ligaments were on the lateral side of my ankle, it meant with taping I could carefully run on relatively flat surfaces in a straight line. Four weeks after the accident was the Great Ocean Road marathon. A race that I had entered to pace my partner through her first full mara. She is a much better runner than she typically gives herself credit for (and is still improving all the time) but I knew that over such a distance her pace wouldn’t be too strenuous on my ankle. A final passed test from the physio and I was given the greenlight to attempt the mara. I didn’t know how I would go but I did know that I needed to get through it with ease to be a chance of running the Adelaide 24 three weeks later. My partner and I assembled at the start line on a cold and wet Lorne morning and pushed through the relentless headwind to Apollo Bay. Ursula was happy to have conquered her first mara and I was happy to have gotten through unscathed.
Two more weeks of increasing training preceded a week of taper and weather watching. I’d not often been dealt the kindest hands of weather cards for my larger events over the last year but that looked like changing for this race weekend. The prospect of a slight chance of showers on Saturday followed by a cool and still night and cloudy morning had me excited to know I’d only be fighting myself rather than the elements too. The entrant list had been released and it was a mix of inspirational friends and unfamiliar names. There was quality in the field: the previous 2 winners and a former 24 hour Australian champion among them. I wasn’t sure what to expect from my body and was happy just to be there. A very light drizzle welcomed us at the start but that would be the limit of the rain. I started faster than I had planned and knocked off the first mara distance in 4:20. The lesson to pace properly from the beginning is one that I am yet to master. Things were feeling good, even my ankle, and the comradery was great so I ploughed on as darkness greeted us. It seemed like every brushtail possum in the county hangs out at the Uni Loop at night in addition to the odd fox, one of which I chased away from helping itself to a fellow runner’s unattended aid station. Close to midnight I became aware of a hotspot developing on the sole of my left foot and despite my best preventative efforts it soon evolved into a blister you could rest a stubbie on (not that I think anyone would want to try doing that). My run had already turned into a shuffle and was now changing into the walk that would carry me through to the end. Unfortunately, during one of my blister management attempts I had removed and then forgotten to reattach my timing anklet.
The moment of realisation and turning back to get it almost broke me but there were a few of us very close to each other and this drove me on. Daylight broke and most were uncertain about where they stood in the field. Some late jostling over the last few laps concluded with very little separating second to fifth with the top 5 all surpassing the 100 mile barrier. I seem to be cursed in that I’m prone to finishing any time based loop ultras at the point furthest away from the lap start/finish and today was no different. By the time I’d made the slow plod back to the race hub everyone else had had the chance to check the results and another runner greeted me with congratulations of a third place finish. A podium spot was the cherry on top of a 7 week journey that had started with tears and ended with a new 24 hour PB of 167.91km.
I’m not sure which was the bigger race: the race for me to be ready for the Adelaide 24 or the Adelaide 24 itself. Either way, I’m proud to have conquered both.
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