Monday, April 18, 2011

Manic Marathon Monday

I'm sitting here watching coverage of the Boston Marathon on TV while avoiding schoolwork and Tina-walking.  Pretty crayzee stuff, that.  These are super human beings.  I have friends who have worked in the medical tent at the conclusion of the race, but have never done it.  It might be fun to do sometime, though.

Years ago when I worked at an ER close to Boston, we would occasionally get a Boston runner hours after the elite runners had finished.  These runners were not world class, but had run their race in 4, or 5 hours and had muscle cramping or dehydration.  It was fun to hear about the start in Hopkinton.

About 8 days ago we had a gentleman who had fallen in his yard and opened up a nasty gash on his knee.  He was training for Boston.

The Talker and he bonded over a mutual love of running while he stitched the wound.  As I bandaged it with my usual somewhat bulky first dressing, the patient wondered how he was going to run with it next day; with 8 days to go before the marathon, the distance running was done and now he was doing shorter training runs.

Me: I imagine that you would be putting a big band-aid over it if you are running tomorrow, hmm?

The patient laughed and admitted that was his plan.  That's ok, it's his first marathon; it is a big deal for New Englanders because the weather is such a factor in training.  We had a most miserable winter in New Hampshire, so I can imagine the adverse conditions that he faced.  He was not going to let a little laceration stop him.

We wished him luck and, as always, invited him back for (free) suture removal in 10 days.  I've been looking for him, but since he is not an elite runner I will not be seeing him on TV.  I hope he does well.