ROAD RUNNING
When it ’ s Not Your Time …
When the surgeon says you shouldn ’ t be alive , you know you ’ ve had a narrow escape , says Wendy Seller , and when he adds that it ’ s probably only the fact that you run that you survived , you find extra motivation to keep running !
– BY SEAN FALCONER morning and my left side felt lame . The chiro realigned my hips , and like a typical stubborn runner , I said I was doing that marathon , whether I run it or crawl it on my eyelashes !” says Wendy .
It was two weeks after her first 42km at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon last September , and Wendy Seller ’ s thoughts were already on her next race . Her goal was to fit in five more half marathons by November in order to celebrate the one-year anniversary of her first 21km by running her 21st half at Soweto , and she had several pre-entries lined up for the various races she intended running … but something was not quite right .
The 39-year-old Johannesburg-based graphic designer and mother of two young boys , Diego ( 10 ) and Rocco ( 5 ), had struggled with various injury niggles all along her right side for several months before the marathon . “ I think I picked up the injury at the MTN Half Marathon in June , and that led to a never-ending battle , because the injury kept moving up and down my left side . Then I woke up one
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ISSUE 105 APRIL 2018 / www . modernathlete . co . za
Proud Cape Town Marathon Finisher
She ended up running the marathon with her whole side taped up under her running kit , but says she still managed to dance at all the water tables and have a real ‘ jol ’ the whole way . “ I ran it solidly , and did much less walking than I expected , but hyperventilated at the finish . At the time I thought it was due to the excitement of finishing my first marathon , but it turns out it was actually due to too little oxygen .” And things were about to get a lot worse .
Mystery Symptoms
Two weeks after the marathon , she woke one Sunday with a sore neck and shoulder on the left side , which she put down to having slept badly . “ I also had a headache and was off-colour , but didn ’ t think too much of it ,” she says . “ On the Monday it was still there , so I decided not to run ; Tuesday there was no change , and there was now a constant headache behind my right eye . On the Wednesday I played golf with the kids , who were on holiday , and on the way home I stopped at the chemist for an anti-inflammatory . That afternoon I started to swell , getting puffy around the jaw and collar bone , which I thought was just a side-effect of the anti-inflammatory .”
The following morning she took her car in for a service , then Ubered home , where she saw herself in the mirror and realised she was now so swollen that she couldn ’ t make out her jaw line or shoulder , due to a massive fluid build-up , so she decided it was time to see a doctor . All the tests seemed normal , and the X-ray just showed fluid , so the doctor couldn ’ t pinpoint the problem and scheduled Wendy for a sonar at 2pm that afternoon . “ I phoned my mom to fetch me , as my car was at the mechanic , and we drove there in heavy rain that afternoon .”
“ They did a quick scan of both sides , and I then had to wait an hour for the results , but eventually they gave me a little brown envelope and said I must go straight
Images : Courtesy Wendy Seller