Nick Symmonds: DNF
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #13)
Posted May 19th, 2008 at 12:34 PM by Nick Symmonds
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Nick Symmonds
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As I was hanging out with a few of my teammates this week we got to talking about dropping out in the middle of a race and how often it seems to happen in professional track and field. “You, know I have never DNF’ed (Did Not Finish) a race before,” I said to them proudly.
In hindsight, I was maybe setting myself up for something terrible to happen. I always felt that if you start a race you should finish it no matter how miserable you feel.
Up until this weekend I had stayed true to this belief, but it seemed that it wasn’t meant to be today at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. I went into this race frustrated with my most recent performance in the 1500m and was determined to crack 3:40 and take some major scalps. Despite the 95 degree weather I was pretty confident I could keep my cool (uh, huh….major pun) and position myself well for a lethal final lap.
When the gun went off I got out hard and as we approached the first turn I liked my position. Then the pushing started and Lopez Lomong went down. He rolled, and — using my best hurdling Technique — I tried to jump over him. I almost made it, but my right knee didn’t quit clear his spikes and his toe dug in hard into my knee. I landed and the gun fired again calling the runners back to the start line. I looked down at my knee and saw a two inch gash running across my knee cap. I panicked. There was a lot of blood and despite the huge amount of adrenaline I had pumping through my veins I could feel the cut. I wasn’t sure whether to run or not. I kept looking down at my knee as I jogged back to the start line. Finally, I decided that I didn’t fly to Los Angeles to not race and I toed the line once again. This time, however, I was much more hesitant and did not get out well. I found myself towards the back and though I did not feel too bad, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that maybe I was doing a whole lot of damage to my knee; that maybe I was dramatically increasing the amount of swelling that would set in as soon as I finished the race. With each passing hundred meters I was getting more and more worried that I was about to mess up my Olympic season. The funny thing is, my knee didn’t hurt that bad. For some reason, I allowed this unfortunate mishap to get into my head and with 350 meters to go I stepped off the track and went to find a trainer.
Ultimately, the gash in my knee would require ten stitches and lead to my first DNF. Though I am still very disappointed that this happened and that I now have to deal with a swollen knee all week, I’m more disappointed that I let it effect me so much mentally. Maybe I am just being hard on myself and perhaps it was a good idea to step off the track. Time will tell, I suppose. As I try and prepare for an 800m I have scheduled in six days, all I know is that the majority of the events that transpired on the track today were out of my control and all I can do now is brush it off and do my best to get back to training. I’m thankful that the gash was rather superficial and fortunately missed my pateller tendon, which would have ended my season. Though my PR will have to remain at 3:40 for awhile longer, I have more important fish to fry as I begin the 800m portion of my season.
-Nick
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Tags: 1500m, 800m, adidas Track Classic, Bernard Lagat, elite athlete blog, elite athlete blog series, lopez lomong, Nick Symmonds, outdoor season, outdoor track & field, patellar tendon, runnung blog, thefinalsprint.com elite athlete blog series
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The Final Sprint
Nick, Thanks for writing this, we were worried about you - I wasn’t sure, from the TV, whether your knee was bad case of road-rash or you had gotten spiked.
Take it easy!
May 19th, 2008 at 4:34 pmThanks for the update. Who knew running the 1500 was such a contact sport. I hope the knee heals quickly and doesn’t effect the training to much.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:50 pmBest of luck!
So glad to hear just what happened We watched the race and all were concerned. We are cheering for you back in Salem!
May 21st, 2008 at 8:21 pmso whats up with racing this weekend?!
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 am