The Portland Race
Skate the Lake, Portland Ontario, Jan 29th, ends my season
The trip up took six and a half hours. Portland is about 2.5 hours north of Syracuse, NY and located on the Rideau. We arrived at our hotel about midnight, and even though we did not need to be at the race sight until 9:30 or so we were awakened around 6:30 AM by the people in the rooms around us getting their days started. We had the stress of crossing into Canada at such a late time in the evening that we also had not had a chance to hit the ATM. We were an hour north of the border and only had American money, which was uncomfortable to say the least. We decided to start our day with the rest of the WESTPORT WORLD and got up, showered and headed out to find cash and breakfast. We also had to check in and out of our motel simultaneously- which was a bit odd.
The motel owner directed us to the DINER on his property which was fairly well deserted when we walked in, but filled rapidly as we sat sipping our coffee. The locals were all curious about the "people decending upon their community. We had a nice conversation with some of them about Marco, the races, skating, etc. Interestingly, another skater, who I was unfamiliar with entered the diner with a woman in tow. She was wearing make-up and the locals immediately knew she was not from around there. They had a great deal to say about them when she left, which makes me greatful that high maintenance stuff like that is not my cup of tea. My guess is that she created a wall that they found inpenatratible... they were ruthless about her attitude being one of superiority over them. All she did was walk in mind you, but she did not engage them in any way and did not even acknowledging them, which was quite rude.
Enough of that, lets get to the race.
I arrived on site with all the nerves and anticipation that goes along with a race. I was pre-registered so all I had to do was pay and pick up my race packet. Kenny immediately scoffed my hat, which was ok. We went to see Rod and the rink. I lost Kenny the minute he found the timing trailer, only to see him again right before we started. Right before the start of the race PETER made his usual GRAND entrance at a high rate of speed. This event his performance was topped by that of Aaron Arndt, who arrived late enough for them to have to hold the start for him.
The day was cold enough that the ice was extremely hard, creating that NO EDGE feeling. There were numerous large cracks in the ice, but nothing too unmanagable. I realized during my warm up that I was really tired and out of sorts- which is weird because I was so into this race on the way up. The 1K track was two long straights with two very tight turns.
There were a great deal of participants, Marco did a great job promoting this event. He had 78 skaters in all. There were enough people to cause some concern over the start, so the decision was made to start the womens race 30 seconds behind the mens. Right from the start I knew it was going to be a difficult haul for me. Off the line it felt as if I had no edge, my left blade was still not set right from the last race where the bolt came loose, and I was trying to work on relaxing about it rather than stressing about it. I finally settled into a pack and was starting to feel as if my worries were being washed away. I noticed that there were a few really serious falls and that cracks were changing with each lap. You couldn't keep mental notes of areas to avoid because the surface seemed to have cravasses opening up at times. There were guys on slush patrol at one point.
I rounded the far turn, getting ready to change up my pack and take the lead. I was looking towards our decided exchange area to see the traffic conditions when I hit the hole. All I remember was trying to protect my face from the blades of my pack leader and going downreally hard on my left knee. ON my way down I recall a large popping sound, and realized that by the pain in my right leg that there was a good chance I wasn't getting up from this fall. I was expecting blood, in large amounts, the kind of thing you would see in a Short Track race. It felt as if my leg had been skated over. The crowd was saying there is no way she is going to be able to get up. Basically, my skate went in up to the ankle, they must have thought the pop was my ankle snapping. I looked up to find Brry Publow's pack baring down on me, but I couldn't move. Someone pulled me out of the way after he went by raising his leg to avoid me. A good deal of his pack stopped to see if I was ok, which made me feel good guys, thanks. The patrol tried to stand me up and we realized I could support my weight, but could not bend my right knee without severe pain from the ankle to the kneecap. They went to find Kenny and we decided that the ER was probably a good idea. Incidently, there was no ICE PACKS available, something I was told I had to supply myself. I wanted to wait for the end of the race to leave for the ER as I was in pain, but knew that it wasn't a DIRE emergency, so Kenny went back to helping Rod and I went off to the Community center, where someone went and got me a bag full of snow, and some lunch.
When the racers started finishing, Youri came and had lunch with me. He saw my crash and told me he thought it was my ankle. Then Peter came in and said the same thing. We sat for awhile, I was waiting for Kenny to finish up so we could leave. We eventually headed to the Watertown Hospital.
The doctors were great, and seemed to be excited by the prospect of speedskating, maybe we should run an event in that area. After x-rays and a diagnosis of "muscle pull/tear", but the tendons seemed to be attached, adn the fibila was intact. Pain killers in hand, I was off. We headed home. I felt like I was hit by a truck for the next four days!!!I even had to take Tuesday off from work.
On Tuesday I was in to see my own orhopedic, who seemed to think that my injury was a bit more of a waiting game. My ankle was now involved meaning that there is a posibility of some tendon damage. My leg is swollen from the ankle to the knee a week later.
What about the left knee? well, on Tuesday the doc was not convinced it was not broken, and took more x-rays. It has been keeping me up at night and is still quite painful to the touch.
I tried to get on my bike yesterday while you were all racing the Joliette race. It did not work out. It was instantly painful, so more time is all I can say. I am heading for an MRI this week to see about the tendon (keep your fingers crossed). Hopefully its just a matter of time. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive through this ordeal it means a lot!
MRI results are in: bad sprain to the knee, and posterior tibular tendinitis in the ankle- no surgery required and the best news yet... I can start skating again.