Running The Extra Mile: Allison’s Inspirational Journey from Injury To Across Prince Edward Island
by: Matt Banks RMT, dipSIT, CHECK L1, ART
People have been running as a form of exercise for a very long time. For some, it’s just for fitness. For other folks, it’s about reaching a goal. For some, it’s an entirely different level of self discovery. A marathon is a big goal in the minds of most people, for others it is just a taste of what is possible. From 5km road races to full marathons there are certainly levels to what a person may be willing to train for and push themselves to endure. Then you have the level that just doesn’t have the word quit in their vocabulary. To this end, allow me to introduce Allison.
The race across Prince Edward Island (P.E.I) is one that I frankly wouldn’t even want to do while driving in a car. But did you know that some people actually run that far?! 273 km in a single race! Allison from right here in Nova Scotia has become the fourth person, and first female, to run from one end of P.E.I. to the other on the main branch of P.E.I.’s Confederation Trail. On Friday June 16th, Allison started out in Tignish on the Northwest tip of P.E.I., and ran all the way across the Island to Elmira over the course of two days and covered 273 kilometers.
I first met Allison in 2022 after she was referred to me by our excellent osteopath named Bret LeBlanc. I was to help her work on a rehabilitation and manual release schedule to improve function for running. Bret told me that she will ‘do the work’. He was not wrong!
Allison is a mother of two, a nurse at the IWK working with premature and critical care infants, an avid runner, and a board certified awesome human. To say that Allison has her hands full is an understatement! Allison had an initial goal to build a cross training routine to work with through the winter so that she was strong and stable for this years’ running season. I knew right away working with Allison would be easy, as she was focused and determined to see improvement while not shying away from doing the work she needed to do to reach her goals. It didn’t hurt at all that this athlete was also humble, kind, and willing to take on new ideas.
It was no surprise at all that Allison did the hard work over the winter. When I saw her name in my schedule in late April of this year, I was hoping it was just a tune up appointment. Unfortunately, Allison had been on a trail run and rolled her ankle while running and reading a map at the same time. This resulted in an ATFL sprain in her ankle. During the assessment, I’m asking about the off season training and how it went, while chatting Allison casually asks if I think her ankle will be fully healed by June. I said no. Generally to properly heal this injury with this much damage, we would be looking at least 16 weeks. Her response, “oh, well I’m planning on running a 275km race in June. What can we do to make that happen?” Not a single ounce of disappointment in her, just stoically looking to solve the problem and get back to chasing excellence. So awesome!
It took just 5 visits with me, with a casual 100km run between visits 4 and 5, to get Allison ready to go for this race across P.E.I. For those that don’t know, that is SO FANTASTIC! Obviously Allison was very diligent with her home exercise and rehab program, perhaps even more impressive is that she also fought off the urge to push too hard in preparation. Allison followed her plan, stuck to her goal, and gathered herself and her team in preparation for a grueling race that took 49.5 hours of running to complete. Between Friday June 16th and Sunday June 18th, while most of us were snacking, sleeping, socializing, laughing and enjoying our relaxing weekend. Allison was running through rain, darkness, hunger, fatigue, pain, grit, and (I imagine) lots of self-talk. I cannot overstate the magnitude of this accomplishment! A normal marathon is 42 km long. The first person to actually run a marathon DIED at the end of it. Allison just ran 6.5 marathons consecutively while the rest of us slept in and ate bacon! Let that sink in a moment.
For me, what I love about this story is that Allison didn’t get paid to do this. She didn’t do it for fame. She had every excuse to quit. The time restraints alone, let alone the ankle injury, or peoples’ tendency toward self-doubt, the simple fact that no other woman had ever finished the race, the fact that the man who holds the record for this race had failed to finish this race on his first TWO attempts. Any one of these could have been enough to make most folks not even try. But not Allison, she pushed herself to pursue excellence because it would have been out of character to do anything less.
I have been a Sports Injury Therapist, Registered Massage Therapist, and Chek Practitioner for a long time. I have worked with many athletes from little kids in house league teams to professional and Olympic athletes. I can say from experience that very few people have the drive and self-belief to tackle a truly daunting task like this one. I am truly impressed and feel so lucky to be a small part of this awesome journey with you Allison! Great job!!
Friedrich Nietzche said “What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal”. To me, this is why Allison is so inspiring. Yes she had a goal. But it was just to strengthen the bridge of determination, to strengthen the bridge of self-exploration, to strengthen the bridge of excellence and mastery of self. Our world is full of people who have never tried to build these bridges in themselves. Most wouldn’t even know where to begin. However, a person does not need to run that far to build these qualities. We all have our own journey. I truly hope Allison and her massive achievement can ignite your will to build your own bridge to take you to a place where you can show yourself what is possible for you. Perhaps one day, with a little push from impressive people like Allison, you can take a seemingly impossible future and transform it into your reality.
Allison, I think I speak for everyone here at Choice Health Centre when I say thank you for being awesome! Great job! We look forward to seeing your next chapter.
[consent obtained from client for sharing purposes]