Stress fractures hurt cross country season

The 2003 IU cross country season did not start on a strong note as three of the team's top seven runners experienced season-ending injuries. Doctors diagnosed senior Becky Obrecht and sophomore Jessica Gall with stress fractures before the season began, and sophomore Lindsay Hattendorf discovered she had a stress fracture after the Indiana Intercollegiates.\nThese three runners are members of a squad that returned all seven runners for the 2003 season from a team that finished 14th in the 2002 NCAA National Cross Country Championship. According to Scott Schroeder, physical therapist with Rebound Outpatient Center for Bloomington Hospital, a stress fracture is a reaction of the bone to a repetitive sub-maximum stress.\n"When a real fracture occurs, like you get hit by a car, your bone is sticking out, that's obviously maximum stress," Schroeder said. "Sub-maximum means not enough to cause a full fracture, but it's just enough to cause a reaction of the bone due to that repetitive stress of it."\nIU coach Judy Wilson said she wants her runners to come to her first if something is bothering them, not the trainer or nurses' practitioner. Wilson said that this way, if what is bothering one of her runners continues for two weeks, she knows that this runner is probably done for a significant amount of time.\n"In trying to prevent (injuries), I really try to make sure that we let girls rest," Wilson said. "But, you know the more fatigued someone is, in terms of not getting enough sleep and stuff like that, I think that can be a factor. I think stress of school and not getting enough rest, I think that you are setting yourself up (for injury)."\nSchroeder said since most stress fractures occur in the lower extremity because of the force of impact on the ground surface, the muscles become fatigued. He said stress fractures can be prevented by making sure a runner is using the proper running technique, making sure the surface a runner trains on can absorb the force, such as grass or trail running, and making sure the shoe is appropriate and possibly using either shoe inserts or orthotics.\nAs part of their rehabilitation to heal and training to remain in shape, Obrecht and Gall performed different workouts in the pool since having to sit out of running, and recently started running again to establish base mileage to prepare for the indoor track season. Gall said the specific workouts she performed in the pool are swimming laps, running in the pool without a flotation device, and tying a bungee cord to the pool wall and the other end around the waist and running in the water with more resistance.\nLast week, Wilson had Obrecht and Gall run a workout on the IU cross country course, one of their first runs since coming back from the rehabilitation process.\n"Coming back and running on the course again is a great feeling," Gall said. "That course is tough and to do a good workout on it and feel pain-free was both a relief and really encouraging for the future."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.