Just days before I was slated to run my first 100k race, a blood vessel in my left eye burst.
I had just finished up on my computer when I went into washroom to remove my contacts. I glanced in the mirror just in time to see a pool of blood rapidly forming in the left corner of my left eye. Within seconds my entire eye was blood red. There wasn’t a speck of white.
I panicked, as you can imagine. A coworker lives really close by so she drove me I went straight away to emergency.
I didn’t have to wait long to see an eye doctor. We went through a number of tests. The doctor determined I had a “common” subconjunctival hemmorrhage. Not to worry, he said. The good news is that it wasn’t behind my eye otherwise I would have been in serious trouble.
I took the doctor’s advice not to do anything for at least a week seriously. I haven’t run since the blood vessel burst. And I just started going back to the gym this past weekend. Maybe I am being too cautious? I don’t know. I write, edit and take pictures for a living. I need my eyes. I was seriously freaked out.
Skipping the 100K and my internal crazy thoughts
The doctor explained that it is a mostly harmless condition that would go away in a couple weeks. He said the worse part would likely be the aesthetics. My eye felt really scratchy – like sand in my eye – and a little swollen. I could see just as fine as I could before but I felt extremely uneasy. I stayed in bed for a few days and I didn’t leave my condo for four days.
I was all set to go run my first 100K this year until obviously this happened. I haven’t been talking about it much this year because I was still trying to convince myself that I could do this. Hotel was booked. Crew (Amanda) was confirmed.
Clearly I am disappointed. For weeks, I had battled pre-race jitters and thoughts about my running ability. But I got over my insecurities with some tough self-talk. I was ready. Then suddenly I have this freaking bloody eye.
Was it fate? Did I will this to happen? Am I losing my freaking mind? Sigh.
So that’s that. No big race for me this year. I can’t complain about my two 50K races or my season this year. I had tons of fun and I ran strong. All good.
Have you ever had to pull out a race because of a random, crazy injury?