D-day..It arrived
After months of preparation and tedious sessions and testing. Simon stood on the start line of the Dublin Marathon with every emotion running through his mind. His body was in turmoil as it suffered from an injury to his shin bone (Tibia) picked up a couple of weeks prior. The only injury he sustained in the 9 and a half months. But against the wishes of his team he felt he needed to at least cross that start line and make an attempt regardless of the consequences he was warned about. He wanted to pay homage to everyone who helped him and show them that he would try at least for them, regardless of his own wellbeing.
His MRI showed up stress reactions in the trebuclae causing extreme pain when extra force is exerted onto it. The tibia is the larger of the two shin bones and as a weight bearing bone is more susceptible to stress fractures, particularly in the lower third. This happens when overloading the bone with continuous muscle contractions, such as running.Continued use would cause a break in the leg, and for a man with one leg this seemed like an insane idea. If you injure your foot or leg you can get around on crutches, for Simon this is not an option. Running just 200 meters was agonising not alone a full marathon and all this Probably the worst news for someone like Simon, being that he is 110% committed and determined to complete any task given to him and that he poured every waking hour into doing this. Everything in his life was put on hold for this event.
The race began and the burning sensation kicked in, Simon tried to compensate and lean more onto his running blade but as the pain in his knee started to develop he was forced back over onto his good leg and the shin started to ache. He managed to complete the10K split at 10:04:03 am with a time of 01:00:47 and pace of 09:47 min/mi. How? we will never know, but only can assume he has an incredible tolerance to pain. It was at that point that he realised that he would jeopardize his future chances and that there were other Marathons to run.
Even though we all completely disagreed with his choice to run, we chose as a team to make an effort and support him. We were all nervous about how it would turn out and would he listen to his body? It is without doubt that we all couldn’t believe how far he made it into the race and were blown away by his effort, each of us knowing that we would be reluctant to stand up let alone make an attempt to run a Marathon. There was nothing but respect for this man amongst us all, who had all the odds stacked against him.
This is not the end but simply the beginning of what is to come, Simon Baker will run again and will set his sights on the ‘Great Limerick Run’ in May 2013 and you can be certain he will start and finish it…!
Regardless of the final outcome, the project itself was a complete success. The phenomenal facilities, The testing results, the training, the recovery sessions in pool and masseuse. The information gathered is now the first of its kind here in Ireland all which will go towards the selecting & searching for an athlete to compete in the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
After months of preparation and tedious sessions and testing. Simon stood on the start line of the Dublin Marathon with every emotion running through his mind. His body was in turmoil as it suffered from an injury to his shin bone (Tibia) picked up a couple of weeks prior. The only injury he sustained in the 9 and a half months. But against the wishes of his team he felt he needed to at least cross that start line and make an attempt regardless of the consequences he was warned about. He wanted to pay homage to everyone who helped him and show them that he would try at least for them, regardless of his own wellbeing.
His MRI showed up stress reactions in the trebuclae causing extreme pain when extra force is exerted onto it. The tibia is the larger of the two shin bones and as a weight bearing bone is more susceptible to stress fractures, particularly in the lower third. This happens when overloading the bone with continuous muscle contractions, such as running.Continued use would cause a break in the leg, and for a man with one leg this seemed like an insane idea. If you injure your foot or leg you can get around on crutches, for Simon this is not an option. Running just 200 meters was agonising not alone a full marathon and all this Probably the worst news for someone like Simon, being that he is 110% committed and determined to complete any task given to him and that he poured every waking hour into doing this. Everything in his life was put on hold for this event.
The race began and the burning sensation kicked in, Simon tried to compensate and lean more onto his running blade but as the pain in his knee started to develop he was forced back over onto his good leg and the shin started to ache. He managed to complete the10K split at 10:04:03 am with a time of 01:00:47 and pace of 09:47 min/mi. How? we will never know, but only can assume he has an incredible tolerance to pain. It was at that point that he realised that he would jeopardize his future chances and that there were other Marathons to run.
Even though we all completely disagreed with his choice to run, we chose as a team to make an effort and support him. We were all nervous about how it would turn out and would he listen to his body? It is without doubt that we all couldn’t believe how far he made it into the race and were blown away by his effort, each of us knowing that we would be reluctant to stand up let alone make an attempt to run a Marathon. There was nothing but respect for this man amongst us all, who had all the odds stacked against him.
This is not the end but simply the beginning of what is to come, Simon Baker will run again and will set his sights on the ‘Great Limerick Run’ in May 2013 and you can be certain he will start and finish it…!
Regardless of the final outcome, the project itself was a complete success. The phenomenal facilities, The testing results, the training, the recovery sessions in pool and masseuse. The information gathered is now the first of its kind here in Ireland all which will go towards the selecting & searching for an athlete to compete in the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
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