Processing Running Injuries
Injury is rarely just physical. Running creates a lot in our lives. It contributes to who you are, your rhythm, and your confidence. When it's taken away, the mental side can often feel worse.
As you may know, I'm writing this from experience — currently managing a femoral shaft stress fracture — and I want to share some thoughts on this journey while it is very fresh, having just this week started a return to running after 13 weeks off.
This isn’t a step-by-step rehab plan. It’s a reflection on mindset: what helped, what didn’t, and how I’ve tried to stay grounded through a process that’s felt frustrating, humbling, and oddly clarifying.
1. The Initial Phase: Acceptance
I knew something was wrong. My head and my body told me to stop, and that has never happened before. Oddly, when the news came that I would be out for a while, accepting it was easy, I think, because I knew this was bad. However, I know for many people that accepting being out is the hardest step and can take time. Though I felt great training for Buffalo Stampede 42km, I was left more in bemusement regarding how this had happened.
That said, letting go of what lay ahead took some time, and I expected it to be quicker.
At first, I wanted certainty. A timeline, a protocol, a finish line. But injuries don’t work like that. They force you to zoom in. So I took a week-to-week approach:
What are the boxes I can tick this week?
What can I learn, adjust, or accept?
Some weeks, that was just resting. Other weeks, it was managing frustration more than doing anything physically meaningful.
Acceptance wasn’t about giving up. It was about realigning my energy toward what I could control.
2. The Middle: The uncertainty challenge
This phase felt the longest.
You're not at the start anymore. You’ve sat with the initial diagnosis. But you’re also not in full rehab or “comeback” mode. It’s a weird space — where things aren’t bad, but they’re not great either.
For me, this was off the crutches, but I was only allowed to do minimal steps, and then slowly progressed to 5000, then 7500, then 10000 over a few weeks.
I had moments when I felt a bit lost. Progress was slow, and I started to realise how long this process was going to be. I wasn’t doing nothing, but I wasn’t doing enough to feel like myself; I couldn't work hard, and this is something that I love. And that’s hard.
What helped here was:
Regular, honest check-ins (with myself and others)
Getting outside
Taking time to appreciate the little things, like being able to play with the dogs
Letting go of “the timeline” and focusing instead on the direction
This is when it’s easy to spiral or make poor decisions — like pushing too soon. I tried to remember: this is where mistakes happen. Don't take the quick and easy option.
3. The Rehab Phase: Getting to work again
The funny thing about the final phase of injury is that it can be just as mentally demanding — but in a different way.
By this point, I was cleared to return to the gym and start introducing load, but I had to hold back the desire to push hard. The work would leave me sore, and I felt like Bambi on ice with some movements.
But there was relief here too. For the first time in months, I had a path. And that changed everything.
Just like before, it was step by step, focusing on what was right in front of me.
Each strength session felt like I was building
Each milestone built trust back in my body
Each “win” reminded me I was respecting myself
And the truth is, I feel like a different version of myself, one that I will carry with positivity into whatever I train for next.
The Next Steps
Injury doesn’t take away the part of your identity that is a runner. That is always going to be a bit of us. It just reveals parts of it you didn’t know you had — resilience, patience, and the willingness to rebuild. It's cliche, but I feel so much
If you’re in it right now — injured, frustrated, uncertain — know that the hardest work isn’t the rehab. It’s how you manage the space in between. The mindset. The story you tell yourself.
So if you’re there:
Zoom in
Control the controllables
Have a specialist to guide you
And trust that you’re still moving forward — even when it doesn’t feel like it yet
You hear the timelines at the start, and the whole picture can sound impossible. The thing is, injuries like this just mean that something went wrong, and they give you the time and awareness to improve and come back stronger for your future adventures.
