ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Doug Norris finished the Tely 10 not realizing he had a broken hip until three weeks later and family and friends are rallying around the 29-year-old as he recovers from surgery.
As the novice road racer ran down Harvey Road that July Sunday, he just thought he was a bit dehydrated and was having a muscle cramp.
Around Rawlin’s Cross — on the home stretch — he started limping pretty much on one leg the rest of the way.
“Adrenaline in the crowds had a lot do with it. … Running it is just a humbling experience, you got all genders, all shapes and sizes, all ages … it makes you want to move…. There’s no way I was pulling out, unfortunately,” said Norris, explaining what kept him going.
“As soon as I got to the finish line, my body stopped and I knew I was hurt pretty bad. I wasn’t able to lift that leg whatsoever.”
Norris finished the Tely 10 at 1:21:50 (81 minutes and 50 seconds) placing 591th out of 3,694 runners. His goal had been 90 minutes.
He sat down by the baseball diamond in Bannerman Park for about an hour, wondering what he was going to do. He wouldn’t seek first aid.
His two buddies who trained and ran the race with him — Thomas Kelsey and John Halley — carried him off the field and helped him home where he was bedridden, unable to move.
As it was Norris' first race, he assumed it was muscular strain and he’d be back to work that week.
He did go to the doctor two days after the race — his mom tried to take him the day after and he was in too much pain to get down over the stairs in his downtown apartment.
Norris also had some physio, but because of his age, everyone was under the assumption he was suffering muscle damage.
“I’ve been worried. When he wasn’t getting better, I knew there was something else on the go,” said his mother, Valerie Hewlett, as Norris was stretched out on a bed in her St. John’s home Wednesday with one leg propped on a pillow.
Norris said when the broken hip turned up on his X-ray, it was a stunner.
“Everybody was in shock at him getting around three weeks like that,” Hewlitt said.
“We all thought it was muscular.”
“You just don’t see an in-your-20s male break his hip, non-contact,” said Norris.
He moved in temporarily with his mom because of his apartment stairs and needing help, including getting in and out of bed.
“Not everyone would be lucky enough to have that situation,” Norris said, grateful for the care.
When the broken hip was uncovered in an X-ray, there was some theory he may have had a stress fracture prior to the race.
Norris has no clue how that would have happened and can’t recall any mishaps.
An active hiker and ball hockey enthusiast, he had never run the Tely 10 before, but is used to being always on the go.
"The morning of the race my body felt great. I felt loose. I was clear-headed,” he said.
The moral of the story, said Norris, is that any inexperienced runner should heed signs of unusual pain, and not try to push through. There’s no shame in pulling out, he said.
“I shake my head at how stubborn I am,” he said. “and probably how high my pain tolerance is.
“Have awareness of your body and don’t push your body to extreme where you are jeopardizing injury or long-term injury.”
Just one week after the race, Norris spent 16 hours on crutches as a groomsman for Ryan Parsons, his best friend since the age of four when they met in their hometown of New-Wes-Valley.
He said he wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
“Ryan meaning so much to me… I got no regrets. It was an amazing wedding,” Norris said.
“On crutches and in pain with an undiagnosed hip fracture, but he powered through and didn’t miss a second of it,” said Parsons, who started a Go Fund Me page to help Norris out with expenses while he’s recovering and off work from his job as a server at Boca Tapas Bar.
There was also a recent fundraiser at the Black Sheep on George Street, which Hewitt owns with partner Don Maher. The two fundraisers have raised a combined nearly $6,000.
With those financial concerns behind him, Norris said he can concentrate on recovery, which will be at least two to three months. He had emergency surgery to install plates and pins once the broken hip was discovered and there is a possibility he may require another surgery and some chance in the future, a hip replacement. After the surgery, the once intense pain is manageable.
Parsons, a registered nurse, said Norris’ injury most often happens to the elderly or those involved in motor vehicle accidents.
Norris is positive about his setback, particularly because of the support he’s received from family and so many friends, with steady visitors to take his mind off it, and people pitching in to help.
“It’s a speed bump on a long road,” he said.
“It’s an amazing feeling just knowing I have support out there. … I have a great feeling knowing that you’re confined to a bed and you got people who want to make a difference in your life and make you feel comfortable.”
Parsons said Norris is well known among many groups of friends who all wanted to help him out — Norris and his family moved into St. John’s when he was in Grade 10.
Norris said he might not be in shape to run next year’s Tely 10 but isn’t ruling out a future race with a longer training time.
“In 2021, I’d love to run it,” Norris said.
Twitter: @BarbSweetTweets
RELATED