Ultrarunning Lifestyle

Photo: Club Fat Ass

Ultrarunners have a tendency to celebrate superficial injuries received on the trail. David Horton gives "best blood" awards in all his races. (I am proud of my "best blood" award from the '07 Holiday Lake 50K++.) And who can forget Senetor Max Baucus in the 2003 JFK? (Baucus later had to have surgery to remove a hematoma that resulted from the not-so-superficial injury.) A couple of years ago ultrarunner Vicki Kendall was much celebrated by her VHTRC clubmates because of an epic bruise on her right leg. Another VHTRC'er Scott Mills had a horrible groin chafing injury from WSER that was captured by Sophie Spiedel. While not an injury per se, who can forget Lisa Bliss' toenail removal? My hand innjury from the '05 Smokies Traverse was worse than it looked. It was a puncture wound that all the way through the pad on my right palm.

Now we have this latest example from Club Fat Ass, a ultrarunning club in the Pacific Northwest. CFA is one of my flickr contacts. I left a comment to find out the background behind this injury. While we love these superficial injuries, we really hate the more serious injuries that keep us from running, including the "superficial" injuries that have serious side effects such infection or hematoma.