Falling while on a run

I fell once because the loops of my shoe laces were too big and my other foot got caught in it. In my early 30s at the time and fell in the middle of the road right in front of several teenagers (boys and girls). Got up with road rash on my arms and legs. I said, "I meant to do that", but they had a good laugh at my expense.

I fell one day while in the latter stages of a 10 mile run. I was going down some wood/gravel steps and twisted my ankle pretty bad. I remember looking down and seeing the underside of my foot (not a good thing) before taking a dive. I thought, "well, that ankle is broken- I'm going down". It was a bad twist, but I walked it off and made the 1/2 mile trek back to my car. Luckily I've twisted my ankles so many times the ligaments are like rubber.

Tripped over a guy when he stumbled on a trail run, fell face-first, broke my nose, and turned a likely low-29 season into a 30:02 season.

Last year I was running on grass and stepped square in a grass-covered hole that was about a foot deep. What a weird feeling to have your foot hit the ground and not stop. I went straight down on hands and knees, but thankfully it was soft grass and didn't hurt at all. A few inches left or right, backwards or forwards, I might have broken my ankle.

Just last week I went down after cracking my head on a large tree branch at full speed. Bled all over, too.

Otherwise just a few slips on icy patches and a few tree root tumbles.

I usually trip over a big sidewalk crack on early morning runs every 2-3 years.

Once during a Hood to Coast, at my second leg hand-off, around 4:00AM, on a downhill gravel road exchange, I thought it necessary to get ahead of a support car so I wouldn't breath it's dust. I bit it in the gravel and ran the 5 mile leg in about 28 min, covered in blood and dirt. Needless to say, my last leg, 7.5 miles about 5 hours later, was really painful.

We were running our warm-ups at Nationals and all fell HARD - simultaneously.

We fell in love with Tiffany McWilliams fine legs and nice buttocks.

On a trail / XC course, roots trip me every now and then.

On the road, I haven't tripped or twisted an ankle since I went back to flats.

I am notorious for falling. I think I fell a total of 5 times my senior track season. One time I was going really fast and tripped going over a curb to go from the grass to the road and fell straight on my knee. I ended up getting bursitis from the fall and I still have the bump to prove it over a year later.

When do I not fall on a run? The worst had to be when I tripped on the edge of a sidewalk and impaled my face on a wooden stake that was left in the ground (the sidewalk had recently been put in). It barely missed my eye and nose by a few centimeters. Blood was pouring out of my forehead, but luckily some guy let me use his shirt to soak up most of it. One of my teammates with me was also a Pre-Med student, so she was helpful. It was so nasty, they would not let me see it before the doctor stitched me up. The worst part was not getting to exercise for two weeks (risk of blood clot). It's always an interesting story to tell though.

I've fallen a few times.

First time was senior year of high school during a cross country race. A dog ran in front of me and I jumped/tripped over it and fell. That was my xc pr race.

The next time I remember was freshman year of college jogging over to the start of the 1500. My coach gave me some words of encouragement and I said "Eye of the tiger" then tripped over a staring block in lane 9 of our track. My coach started laughing at me.

Then next time was junior year. I was out on a training run and slipped off the curb. Scraped up my thigh.

Then there was the day I was doing a 2+ hr long run while training for a marathon. I tripped on my shoe laces and went straight down. Hit the ground in slow motion scraping my palm, elbow, and knee. It was 30 minutes into the run and I still finished it.

Most recently I was running with the xc team I coach. I slipped making a turn on a muddy trail. Scratched my leg up but not too bad.

I'm surprised I haven't fallen more. Especially since I used to run the steeple.

1) Fell 17 miles into a 20 miler three weeks before my first marathon -- hit a tree root on the trail, probably was to tired to lift my feet and was shuffling. Cut my hand and right knee. Had to walk the last three miles bloody -- scared a lot of people on the trail.

2) Fell down at 6am on a street near my house, crack in the asphalt. Was picking myself up and brushing off the dust when my two teenagers drove by on the way to school...I was embarrassed.

Until last Thursday, my answer would have been no, but then I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk while running to work and ended up in the ER with a divot out of my elbow. I have felt extremely sheepish about it since then, so it's nice to know that I'm not the only one clumsy enough to fall while running down the street.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

When do I not fall on a run? The worst had to be when I tripped on the edge of a sidewalk and impaled my face on a wooden stake that was left in the ground (the sidewalk had recently been put in). It barely missed my eye and nose by a few centimeters. Blood was pouring out of my forehead, but luckily some guy let me use his shirt to soak up most of it. One of my teammates with me was also a Pre-Med student, so she was helpful. It was so nasty, they would not let me see it before the doctor stitched me up. The worst part was not getting to exercise for two weeks (risk of blood clot). It's always an interesting story to tell though.

That is my worst nightmare....one of these days I will get impaled. Miami is full of crap like that. It should be illegal to put barely-visible stakes in the ground like that. I mean, how is that any different than setting a booby-trap? People can get hurt.

I actually just fell the other day. I busted my head open pretty bad on a rock. A lot of blood! No one at work believes me. They all say bar fight!

what about the 430 miler? it'l be interesting to hear if he's fallen during a run.

I, too, have had a few falls. One year the Canadian cross country championshiip was on a three lap course. I fell on the same root on each of the three laps and the same runners passed me each time. I have also fallen on snow covered curbs a couple of times so I moved to California. I have cracked my collar bone once and my ribs a couple of times but my biggest fall was in March of 2006 as I left the beach area to go up onto the Santa Monica Pier. I landed on my right shoulder and shattered my humerus into 5 pieces at the shoulder joint. In addition, the ball of the joint was nearly an inch out of the socket. I was lucky enough to find a doctor who could fix it. It took a three hour operation plus a plate and 11 screws to reconstruct the shoulder.

I fell during a cooldown run after a short 2-mile low-key road race. My buddy and I were doing like 9-minute pace, conversational, and I tripped on my own laces, went down in a push-up position and sprang right back up. There were some volunteers on bikes nearby that saw this and they asked if I needed help. I felt like an idiot, luckily my buddy didn't even really laugh. We just kept on going.

senior year of college cross, coming back from a workout on the grass, turned corner and slipped on a big old pile of dog crap that was deposited on the sidewalk. actually landed hard on my hip, but thankfully no damage.

Stang91, I remember you having one of the best falls I've ever seen. You were running but not on a run. I belive it was on the way back from the State track meet and you were sprinting out of Denny's back to the car and tripped over the curb and did a huge face plant right in the parking lot. That was about 15 years ago and I still can't drive down I-5 and not bust up laughing when I see that Denny's.