A long road back for athlete
Dennis-Gallant recognized as most dedicated runner
It’s been a long and inspiring road back for Teresa Dennis-Gallant.
The 42-year-old Summerside resident was named the most dedicated runner for the 2017 Kensington Community Harvest Festival Road Race on Saturday morning.
“It’s the most challenging run on P.E.I., and they say if you can run it you can run a full marathon,” said Dennis-Gallant, who finished in two hours 47 minutes 47 seconds (2:47:47).
“I was pretty proud to have finished it in under my goal of three hours, and it’s given me that extra push to complete my goal of running the P.E.I. Full (Marathon) in October.” For Dennis-Gallant, these are accomplishments that seemed unachievable just less than two years ago. It was on Sept. 12, 2015, when she suffered a serious leg injury – a broken tibia and fibula – in roller derby.
After having a rod, three pins, a plate and six screws inserted, her surgeon told her she may never run again – or never at the “speed or distance” she was accustomed to. Dennis-Gallant refused to give up, or use her injury as an excuse.
She began the long road back by walking events, which only fuelled her desire to run again.
“The hardest part as a runner was walking across those finish lines when I wanted to run,” she added. Dennis-Gallant, who also ran the Harvest Festival race before her injury and knew what to expect from the “Killer Course”, had the, plate, pins and screws removed in November 2016, and received the go-ahead to run again in January 2017.
“Surgeon said to take it easy, and listen to my body,” noted Dennis-Gallant.
“I printed off a training plan, and since I won’t be fully healed until January/February, I tweaked the plan to suit what I could do.
“I didn’t think twice about adding the Harvest Festival race into my training plan.”