“I’m running my first New York City Marathon with a broken wrist and elbow”

Canadian runners are tough customers.

This weekend, at the New York City Marathon, Sandra Walsh will be racing with a cast on her arm after sustaining a broken elbow and wrist at a trail race on Sept. 23. Walsh broke her arm at the Tobermory Trail Half-Marathon on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. Following the accident, she proceeded to run 3K to the nearest checkpoint to get it wrapped up. She headed back on course before opting not to continue.

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“Hoping to downgrade from the purple cast I have been training in to a lower profile one for race day,” she says. New York City will be her third Abbott World Marathon Major, a series of races which includes six major-city marathons around the world. Her fourth is scheduled in Tokyo for February 2018.

She missed about 2.5 weeks of training, during which she substituted elliptical work in place of running. Then, the Ingersoll, Ont. runner says she put in two consecutive weeks of 90K-plus mileage followed by the typical marathon taper leading into race day, which in 2017 is Nov. 5 for New York City.

“My gait is off as my arm is swinging unnaturally,” she says of running with an arm cast. “It’s heavy. I’m not sure how NYC will go, given the time off and the other issues.” She hopes to run in an Exos cast on race day, a lighter option.

“Just happy to be going, and celebrating the hard work I put in last year to get a time qualifier entry,” she says.

Got a memorable moment from a past New York City Marathon? Get in touch by emailing tim@runningmagazine.ca