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.