Welcome to the PT Rebels Podcast.

This is the place to learn how you can become a PT rebel and take charge of your own health and wellness. We will help you find answers to your questions about pain, injury, and the path towards healing in the most efficient and effective way possible.

I’m your host, Dr. Gina Fick.

On today’s episode, I’d like to talk about my experience at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon. Last week I was asked by one of our athlete ambassadors, Carmen Graves, to travel to Eugene and work for her at the track meet for athlete support staff. Carmen had been dealing with a. Small injury at her foot and wanted to make sure that she would be able to compete without pain, both in the prelims and then in the finals. So I was very excited to have the opportunity to travel to Hayward Field. For those of you know who know Hayward Field, it’s. One of the best and nicest tracks in the world, and world Championships were held there last year. USA championships were held there this year, and it is. A stadium that is honestly breathtaking when you see it. A lot of money and time was poured into the renovation of that stadium and it’s just world class and such a, it was such a honor to be asked by Carmen to join her in just such a privilege and such a fun time for us to be able to go and experience the world Championships together. So prior to the trip, I went through a medical credentialing process with USA track and field, whereby they just go through and make sure that your licensed CPR certification, first aid certification, SafeSport, they go through and make sure that all of that is good, and then make sure that you’re eligible to be medical support staff for the athletes at the event. So I went through that process and got. The clearance in order to be medical staff for Carmen and Carmen was able to register me as a medical provider. And so then when we traveled to Eugene, I was able to go in and just get registered, get my credentials, and honestly, it was just such a, it’s such a fun experience just to. Step out of the clinic and be able to travel with an athlete and support them in their endeavors. You know, this is a huge deal for these athletes to be competing at USA Track and Field Nationals and just to be able to go and support Carmen and. Her team and to be a part of that and just part of the excitement and the experience was really fun for me. So I decided prior to the trip that it would be really cool to take our oldest son, Ryan, who will be a sophomore next year at Valor Christian High School here in Highlands Ranch. He runs track and field and he has for the past eight years, so he’s a competitive track and field athlete, and I thought it’d be really cool to be able to take him and have him experience. This meet and experience being around these athletes and this level of competition we in, we traveled together Wednesday prior to the track meet, starting on Thursday when we arrived in Eugene. The first place we stopped was Hayward Field, and we went into the arena where I picked up my credentials and the credentialing, and right away saw several professional track and field athletes. Obviously I’ve known by watching them either on TV or being around them, in person in the track and field world. And it was, uh, immediately exciting to be a part of that environment and to see the, a athletes’ excitement on their faces and the, the staff’s excitement for the event coming up. And so we, once we got their credentials, immediately just started touring the track. And it was breathtaking. I had been at Hayward Field back in 2018 and it was a pretty cool experience then to be at the track with all the history, but to see the stadium and all the time and money and effort that was put into it to make it a world class stadium was really just, it caused you just to kind of stand there and pause. And it’s breathtaking. It’s, it’s incredibly beautiful. It’s a, it’s an arena and a stadium that. It was like none other in the world. And so to be able to be a part of that and be there, I felt very honored and very privileged, and was just very excited to be a part of the experience. On Thursday, Carmen arrived and I was able to meet with Carmen and meet with her husband and her coach, Julie Benson, and really just talked with her about, you know, how she’s feeling, how she’s feeling. Physically with her foot, how she was feeling mentally. She felt excited, how she felt prepared, and you know, just the importance of having a team like that surrounding you, I think is really critical to the success of these athletes at that level. So Carmen said that she had never been. Two U-S-A-T-F nationals with this type of team before, and I think that she saw a lot of benefit in that. She never had a physical therapist travel with her. I’ve traveled with athletes prior. I never worked at a national championship event, but I’ve traveled with other athletes at like the U twenties in Bloomington, Indiana. I’ve traveled with high school athletes at more elite level competition, so I’ve been in that support role in athletes for many years in the past. And for me it’s super exciting to be able to watch these athletes and all their preparation hard work kind of come to fruition and be able to shine on that stage at that level. And also to be able to support them in whatever injury or pain or fear or frustration might come along to be able to be just a part of their support staff. And that was really, has really been exciting. It was exciting for me and Eugene as well, so. At the meet, they have the main stadium, and then they have an athlete’s preparation area, essentially where in recovery area where the athletes go prior to and after their events. So there’s a check-in area, there’s a medical tent For medical providers like myself to work on the athletes. There’s a recovery tent where the athletes can go in and get water, get a towel, and, and in the, in the re in the medical tent, there’s NormaTec, there’s cold tubs. They look like giant kitty pools actually is hilarious. So there, there was cold tubs, hyper ice guns, the norm, tech recovery boots, and there were massage therapists, chiropractors, physical therapists, and a big tent. And were able to work on the athletes helping them get ready for their competition. On Thursday prior to Carmen’s event, I arrived about an hour and a half early and met Carmen and her coach and we just talked and about how she was feeling. I worked on her foot and ankle. Her foot had been bothering her for a few weeks prior, and so we had been working together in the clinic as well. So we kinda had a strategy on what we knew was helpful for her in getting her ready for competition, doing some fit mobility work. Doing some stretching, doing some ankle mobility, just some general hip mobility, making sure that her foot was ready to go. And you know, Carmen is a steeplechase runner, so it’s very important that she has good mobility in the foot and in the toes. Uh, and so we, I worked on that and after that, Carmen went out for a warmup, talked with her coach, and I was able to go back up in the stands and get ready to watch her compete. And so, you know, sitting there in the stadium watching Carmen’s name, you know, on the, on the gigantic screen, seeing her face and knowing all the hard work that she had put in for this event, it was really exciting just to be able to watch her make the finals, number one, and, and just experience suc experience success in that realm of competition where everyone is. Extremely talented and has worked very hard to get to. Carmen made the finals and that was obviously very exciting and, and so we went into recovery mode and I went back to the tent with Carmen and did a flush and just did some general work on her hips, her lower extremities, her legs, her ankles, her feet, and you know, just encouraged her to go get some good nutrition, get some rest. Hydrate and get ready for the competition on Saturday. So she didn’t compete on Friday and she was able to go back to the recovery tent on Friday and just do some recovery work on her own. And then Saturday we went through the process again, just getting her ready for competition. So prior to Carmen’s competition on Saturday, we kind of just repeated the process that we did on Thursday and arrived about an hour and a half early prior to her event. Interestingly, Carmen arrived to the tent and said that she forgot her credentials and somehow she was able to get past U-S-A-T-F officials and get into the athlete preparation area and get to the tent. So I was able to work on her foot and ankle while her husband, Sean. Ran back to their Airbnb at, I think, I believe he said, five 30 Pace, and ran back to the Airbnb and ran back to the track with her credentials and was able to give her credentials so that she could go check in for the event. So Carmen remained very calm throughout the whole thing. Sean came back and was pouring in sweat. He is just an incredible husband and that thankfully he is a fast runner, so he was able to get back and give her those credentials, and so we carried on. She was able to go through her warmup and really strategize with her coach Julie Benson. Julie was a someone that I have been receiving some referrals from. She is a phenomenal, was a phenomenal athlete, has been a phenomenal coach for professional athletes, and she was really. Stoic. She was very professional with Carmen and I really enjoyed watching her interact with Carmen and just help Carmen have a very clear game plan of what she wanted Carmen to accomplish and was, you could tell that Julie was well seasoned and experienced and very confident in her coaching abilities, but also in her ability to help Carmen prepare clearly for this race and what she needed to do in terms of strategy. And so. Then Carmen went out and again prepared, went for check-in and prepared for her race, and I was able to go watch Carmen just run phenomenally. She finished ninth. Overall, the top five runners in her heat had set met world championship standards, so for her to finish ninth and quite honestly, if she would’ve had probably 50 more meters or less, she would’ve finished eighth. So she’s very close to finishing eighth. And that was the personal best for Carmen of over, I believe it was over five second PR for her and was the best that she had finished in a US championship competition. Carmen is 32 years old and just keeps getting faster, so it’s really exciting to be able to be a part of her team and to be able to watch her succeed and really just continue to grow and get faster and have more success.