Dealing With A Serious Injury Made Craig Mottram (12:55 5000m) A Better Athlete
Craig Mottram conducted an interview in January 2004, several months before running 12:55 for 5000m. The 18 months leading up to this achievement was full of action; Mottram changed coaches and suffered a serious, potentially career-ending knee injury.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
On how the knee injury came about:
“I think it’s pretty common knowledge that I was playing a game of basketball with some friends, just after I got back from Europe in 2002. I didn’t notice any pain during the game but pulled up sore the following day. The knee then got progressively worse for three or four days before we decided to take a few days of. But the more time I took of, the worse it got. Eventually it got to the stage of exploring cortisone injections, cutting the band under local anaesthetic and even travelling half way around the world for treatment. But the body is a strange thing and eventually, after taking its time, it came right.”
“It was pretty bad. For about three months I couldn’t run properly and was just jogging around for a few minutes here and there. But one morning I decided to try to push through the pain barrier to see what would happen. However, after seven minutes of slow jogging, I just fell over. A lady walking her dog nearby came over to ask if I was OK. I just limped back to the car and thought that was it.”
On contemplating surgery and wondering if it would end his career, after battling with it for months:
Twice, I was booked in (for surgery). I was booked in for just after New Year but I sat down with Nic and we decided to give it another few weeks and try Gerard’s treatment. Then I rang the specialist, David Young, from Ireland after Gerard’s treatment was not working, and arranged to have the operation as soon as possible after I arrived home. But I got of the plane on Friday and thought, “stuf it, the operation is on Monday afternoon, I may as well go out for one last run!” Anyway, I ran for 30 minutes and there was no pain! Then on Saturday, I ran for 40 minutes and there was no pain – Sunday, an hour with no pain. When I woke up on Monday the knee still felt fine so I told David Young that I wanted to postpone the surgery. Anyway, he said that whenever I decide to have the surgery, just give him a call and he’d fit me in the next day. Luckily for me, he’s still waiting for the phone call. Young had a theory that the plane trip had acted like a hyperbaric chamber and had helped to clear away the scar tissue that had been stirred up by Hartmann’s intensive massaging.”
“Yes, I did, many times. I spoke to a lot of people who’d had I.T. band injuries as well as people who have had the surgery and there is a high success rate. David Young said that he was 99% sure that it would be right but everybody is different and what if I was the 1% who didn’t recover? Also, not everyone who has the operation is looking to run 160 – 170 kilometres a week. Everyone’s body is built a certain way for a good reason and if you start stuffing around with it having operations, not so good things can happen.”
On if he thinks it made him a better person/athlete:
“I don’t know if it’s made me a better person but it’s certainly made me a better athlete. I’ve endured a lot through those seven months – I had a split with my coach (Bruce Scriven) which was quite awkward, then to become injured straight after leaving Scrivo was extremely frustrating. When you make a tough decision like that you want to get out there straight away and prove to everyone that you have made the right decision, but because of the injury, I didn’t get that opportunity. At the time, I knew it was the right decision and I think people are starting to see that now. However, you learn a lot of lessons when you become injured – you learn to listen to your body and you do all the little one percenters that can really make a diference at the top level. Also, I did stay motivated, I did stay disciplined, I ate good food, I went to the pool everyday, I did circuits most days, I rode most days – basically, I did everything possible that would not irritate my I.T. band. It just took a lot longer to heal than anyone thought it would.”
On cross-training:
“No exercise can replace running if you’re a runner but a lot of the hardships in running: the routine, the discipline, the running twice a day, if you can mimic that with other exercises like swimming and riding and circuits, then you’re keeping fit and strong while the injury heals.”
