Krista DuChene’s Big Comeback
After breaking her femur during a race, one of Canada’s top runners plans on making a big statement in 2015
With just 500 metres to go at this past April’s Canadian half-marathon championships in Montreal, Krista DuChene had yet another national title all but won. One step later, she felt a sudden and intense pain unlike anything she had ever experienced before – not during childbirth or any running or hockey related injury. Her femur, the strongest bone in the human body, broke in half.
Somehow, out of that pain came a burning desire to finish. “I remember one person in the crowd yelled out, ‘Crawl if you have to,’” says DuChene. “In my mind I said, ‘You bet I will.’”
Hopping on her good leg she still managed to cross the finish line in third. Peter Eriksson, the head coach of Athletics Canada, was on hand to witness the late-blooming marathoner’s most gritty performance yet. “Elite athletes are often able to compete through pain, especially for a big event, but not many could do what DuChene did,” he told reporters after the race.
The break in her femur was where it meets the hip bone, requiring immediate surgery to insert a plate and three screws. At midnight, just 12 hours after nearly effortlessly striding to another dominant victory, DuChene went under the knife. She was 37 years old and just a year before ran the second fastest women’s marathon in Canadian history. Her running future was now uncertain.
After 10 weeks DuChene was given the green light to start easy shuff ling. Not running; not even walking, just shuff ling along for a few minutes at a time. Like that short 500 metres to the finish line in Montreal, DuChene was determined. At the end of week six, she managed to run 5k consecutively.
Much of her rehabilitation has taken place at a cabin where she spent much of her childhood. Surrounded by family, DuChene says the experience has been good for her both physically and mentally. Now, she’s starting to think about getting back to being a worldclass runner. “I have felt blessed each and every day and continue to dream and focus on my big goals,” she says.
DuChene wants to get back to being one of the fastest female marathoners in Canada by March 2015. To do so, she will have to be able to handle the gruelling workouts that she nailed before running 2:28:32 last fall. Before the injury, DuChene was set on making the 2016 Olympic Games at the age of 39. As the summer came to a close, DuChene was on target, running 16k continuously and lowering her pace for lengthy stretches. She is treating this comeback much like when she returned to running after having children. “You take it slow and steady with a passion to get out there and run faster than ever,” she says, brimming with enthusiasm for her next run.
DuChene hopes to shake off the rust with some shorter races during the winter of 2014 and then gear up for a spring marathon in 2015, as the qualification window for Rio opens. When asked what kept her going through all these months, she says without hesitation, “a passion to excel, the excitement of competing and my love of running.”– Noel Paine