Broken Foot

It happened half way through a 20 kilometre training run on Sunday.  I was in West Kowloon Cultural District, outside M+, going slightly downhill. Stepping off the sidewalk onto the road, the outside of my right foot touched ground first.  Perhaps I miscalculated the drop in the ground, the rest of my foot started to roll outside, trapping the outside edge of my foot under my body.  My foot hurt.  I fell.  

I kind of half rolled onto the ground and then sat up.  I know I shouldn’t move too quickly.  Other than a little scratch on my left knee, it seemed like I wasn’t visibly hurt.  But the right foot was hurting inside.  I believed I sprained my right ankle, similar to the way I sprained my left ankle the last time in Tai Hang Tung.  For a while, I wondered whether I could get up, walk it off, and finish the run.  Very soon, I realised that it was unrealistic.  

A young couple with two dogs came up and checked on me.  The man picked up my water bottle for me, and helped me to move a few feet away, to sit under the shade of a small tree.  One of the dogs came up to sniff me. That lifted my mood a bit.  

After a while, I was able to get up and limp along. I found that I could not put too much weight on my right foot for many steps.  I decided I was too sweaty to take a taxi.  It was roughly 1.5 kilometres to the Austin MTR station.  I thought I could make it. After 100 meters, I sat on a fire hydrant to get a rest.  Then continued to limp to Austin MTR.  Comparing the experience to the last time I sprained my left ankle, this felt worse.  I was afraid it might be more than a sprained ankle.  

I will not be able to run the marathon in October.  This is a real shame.  I had entered the Standard Chartered Marathon (full marathon) scheduled for February 2020, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.  At the first round of drawing for the 2021 Marathon, I was not successful.  Only in the second round did I succeed, and I was quite happy for it.  That’s the reason I started to train hard a week or so ago, running 3 times for a total of 48 kilometres.  Then this happened.  I was quite upset, but I was not sure what I should be upset with. 

I dared not take off my shoe to check on my foot before arriving home.  When I did, the upper middle part of my foot was swollen and purple.  It is not my ankle that is hurt.  This has not happened to me before.  I was afraid I might have broken a bone, or torn some ligaments.  It hurts badly whenever I put any weight on it.  My wife put an ice pack on it, and helped me put my feet up.  

On Monday morning, we went to see our favourite doctor.  X-ray revealed a fracture on a bone on the outside of my right foot linked to the small toe - the fifth metatarsal.  He said my best option was probably to put my foot in an air cast.  He then sent me to his orthopedist friend.   The doctors put me in an air cast. It is essentially a plastic case lined on the inside with inflatable air pockets, which encase my foot to immobilise it.  The idea is to let the foot heal itself.  Given the situation, that is the best I could hope for.  Now my wife said I look like a stormtrooper (star trooper as in Star Wars) - my foot, at least.  

I had a mishap, due to my own carelessness, and I am suffering a bit for it.  It is more annoying and inconvenient rather than real suffering. But I met so many good people along the way.  Even the taxi drivers were kind and courteous. It is not a bad bargain after all.