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Customer of the Month- March

Tell us about your experiences! That's all it takes to be the Adidas Customer of the Month.

Each month we ask you a different question and if your answer is chosen you'll be highlighted in the monthly email and win a pair of shoes from Adidas!

March Topic:

Tell about your worst running injury.  How did you overcome it to return to your active lifestyle? Share on the blog or on Facebook! Deadline: February 17th.

February Topic and Winner:

You have shared some inspirational quotes that keep you strong, powerful and happy as you pound pavement.  Whether it’s about moving the fastest or the slowest, about starting the race, or being your best, one thing rings true…it’s all about your experience!

Alison Tomaska was selected as the February Adidas Customer of the Month, and her favorite motivational quote that pushes her through marathon training is from the movie, A League of Their Own; “It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it.  The hard is what makes it great.” 

Use Facebook to Leave a Comment - We'd love to hear from you.



Terry Hoffman
[Sanford FL] • Saturday February 15, 2014, 10:05 am

In January 2012, I was completing an 8 mile run with my running group (Orlando Galloway). There were 8 ladies running together. We had such a good run and were almost back to our vehicles when all of a sudden I tripped on a sidewalk seam and flew threw the air and came down hard on my face. I was bleeding from my chin, hands and knees, bent my wedding band into an oval shape (which is still a mystery because I landed on my face), but what concerned me the most was the pain I was feeling in my jaw. When I hit the ground, I felt as though my jaw shoved into the back of my head. I went to urgent and received several stitches in my chin, however my jaw wasn't x-ray'd at the time. After a very miserable and painful rest of the weekend, I ended up having a CT done on my jaw on Monday and found out that I had broke and displaced my jaw. I was sent to an oral surgeon where I was advised that I would need my jaw wired for 4 weeks and would have to stop running until further notice. Within a few days, I was put under anesthesia and woke up with a very tightly wired jaw. It was absolutely miserable. I lived on blended food for the next 4 weeks. Did you know even shrimp and pasta can be put in a blender with chicken broth? It was quite the experience, one that I would not wish upon anyone. What kept me going was knowing that it could have been much worse. I was not suffering from a fatal illness and I knew that within 4 weeks, I would no longer have my jaw wired shut. I also continued to do other types of cross training. My running partner gave me her bike trainer so I could continue to work my legs and I also did a lot of walking. Prior to breaking my jaw, I had already signed up for an upcoming half marathon in early March. Although my jaw was no longer wired by the time of the half marathon, I still was in the healing phase and had not yet been released to run. So two friends of mine from my running group walked the entire half marathon with me. They refused to run ahead of me or leave my side and that is something I will never, ever forget. Runners don't go out and train for half marathons at the wee hours of the morning in all kinds of weather to then turn around and walk 13.1 miles. But these ladies did, they helped me to cross that finish line. They were my support and my strength. I finally was released to start running again and have been doing so ever since. In fact, I just completed my first full marathon in January and have another coming up next weekend. Having an injury may be a setback, but it's also a motivation to be stronger and go further. Yes, I still trip and still have to remind myself to pick my feet up, but I wouldn't give up my running for anything.

Eric Kelly
[Winter springs FL] • Saturday February 1, 2014, 10:47 pm

Continued: I would just edit my posting but there is no option for that. Anyways, when I first posted my story there was no mention of "How did you overcome the injury / returned to an active lifestyle" that part showed up after the fact.. so I will explain here in more detail. So after my stress fracture I couldn't run at all but found that I could bike, swim and do some other types of cross training such as weight lifting, punching a punching bag (pretty good cardio actually) and so on. I was very pleased to find that I could in fact remain very active, sustain and even improve my overall fitness via cross training. It was still very frustrating not being able to run but after a while a learned to accept and make the best of my circumstance. Stress fractures don't heal over night unfortunately :( All the cross training I did while off from running actually made me more physically fit overall and more resistant to injury. I actually gained a good 15 pounds of muscle in these 3 months! Probably because I was so scrawny to begin with and I was still going through puberty at the time but hey the extra weight didn't slow me down and I felt a lot better! The biking was great for developing strength and power in the quads and of course it's excellent cardio. The swimming I did was phenomenal for overall fitness of course as it works the entire body and is superb cardio. I found that as long as I wasn't pounding my leg with high impact I was good to go. The sort of weight lifting I did was geared towards making me a stronger runner not building bulk / trying to impress the ladies.. I did a lot of squats, lunges (low weight / high reps), leg extensions / curls for lower body. For upper body, I did really basic stuff like push ups, pull ups and arm curls mimicking arm swing while running. Approximately 3 months later after my stress fracture was finally fully healed I attempted my first run. It felt a little strange at first (as one could imagine) but I quickly adapted and within a couple weeks I was almost back to running like I was before the injury. The cross training I did while injured helped immensely! After about just six weeks of training from coming back from the injury, I set at what the time was a PR of 36:04 for 10K (Rat Race 10K 1995') placing 4th overall and 1st in my age group (by a long shot) in that race at the age of 15. Although I never really had the opportunity to realize my potential as a runner due to various reasons, I will always love running and will continue to use cross training as a tool to help improve my running and overall health and fitness. When you suffer from a running or any injury for that matter there is typically something that you can do to maintain or even improve your fitness! I think many runners could benefit tremendously if they incorporated some type of cross training into their routine injured or not.

Seeta Nath
[Orlando FL] • Saturday February 1, 2014, 11:19 am

I've been pretty fortunate with injuries because I do try my best to make sure I don't push myself past my limit too often. I've been able to walk away from most of my races with just a dull ache. However, I do remember one particular race where I got terribly sick. I had been training for this 10K not too long and because of my new job I hadn't been able to train as well as I would have wanted. Unfortunately for me, the race conditions were not forgiving. It was a night race, and I hadn't done too many night runs, and it was extremely humid outside. I ran my race as I had been running during my training. I noticed that I started to feel really queasy, and I drank water throughout the race at a quicker rater than I had practiced with. I finished the race, picked up my gear, and began to walk through the post-race celebration activities. I sat down, and tried to eat something. This had never happened to me before and I didn't know what to do! Eventually, after what felt like forever, I puked. I instantly felt better, but learned my lesson about training and pacing the hard way!

Michele Franco
[Lake Mary FL] • Friday January 31, 2014, 12:00 am

My injury happened in 2012 when I was training for The 26.2 with Donna. I was training hard and was prepared to finish the race in 4 hours. One day about a month before the race I was on a regular easy run when I heard a pop. The muscles that hold my hip and pelvic bones in place snapped and my hip and pelvic bones shifted out of alignment. I went to therapy and started jogging in the pool as well as continuing to help my friend train by riding a scooter. It was a long hard road that took 8 months to heal from and after my runs were very very slow but I was so happy to be out there again on the trails. BTW I walked that marathon in 7:10. I believe I was the 2nd to last finisher but I did it!

Eric Kelly
[Winter springs FL] • Thursday January 30, 2014, 10:38 pm

The worst running injury I've ever had is an easy one to remember and I will never forget it. In 1995' I was in my sophomore year in High School competing in the mile and 2 mile for the track team. The year before, my freshman year at the age of 14 I ran the mile in 5:25 with my goal being to break 5:00 my sophomore year and I did just that running a 4:59 (ran 10:40 for 2 miles). So I was really excited about running and my chances of getting a scholarship by the time of my senior year. Unfortunately, the thrill of breaking 5:00 for the mile was relatively short lived. A few weeks later while running intervals at the track in preparation for the regional meet I developed a stress fracture on my lower right fibula (The smaller of the two bones in the lower leg). The injury made it impossible to run and was extremely painful and took 3 months to fully heal. In the meantime I cross trained by biking, swimming and lifting weights so that I wouldn’t lose too much fitness when I returned back to running. Unfortunately (again) my living situation changed (a long story in itself) and I moved to a different location and attended a private school that didn’t have a track or cross country program. So in short, after that stress fracture my dreams of achieving great things in running died with it. Shortly after High School I joined the Marine Corps with hopes of making and running for the Marines but again, circumstances did not really permit me to train the way I needed to train in order to run the times required to do this with constant deployments, etc. I’ve always stayed in great shape but ever since that horrid stress fracture I haven’t had the time nor opportunity to discover what I’m really capable of as a distance runner. It really saddens me thinking about it because there’s no doubt in my mind that I could have done quite well as a runner if things worked out a bit differently.