From ‘surviving’ to pain-free: How runner DeBues-Stafford overcame serious injuries | CBC Sports

Gabriela DeBues-Stafford was in the best running shape of her life until she couldn’t put weight on her left leg in the warmup area minutes before a women’s 800-metre race last summer at the FBK Games in Hengelo, Netherlands.

Realizing there was a serious problem, the Canadian athlete called her coach Trent Stellingwerff, who knew a physiotherapist at the Continental Tour event. But when the injury didn’t respond to treatment, DeBues-Stafford headed home to Victoria.

“I was hoping it was a glute strain,” the two-time Olympic middle-distance runner recalled over the phone recently, nearly one year later. “I think I could have done the 800 but didn’t want to put my leg into a race that could make a bad injury worse.”

Nine days later on June 15, DeBues-Stafford announced her 2022 season was over due to a stress reaction in her sacrum, a single bone comprised of five separate vertebrae located at the bottom of the spinal column, connecting it to the pelvis.

An MRI simultaneously diagnosed the Toronto native with osteitis pubis — an inflammatory condition of the joint between the left and right pelvic bone.

“Being in pain was difficult,” understated the four-time national champion. “I felt I was constantly running at the limit of what my body could do and was limited in [my] training.”

These days, a pain-free DeBues-Stafford is running 100 kilometres a week and gaining fitness. On May 6, 343 days after her most recent race, she ran four minutes 6.71 seconds for second place in the 1,500 at the Sound Running Track Festival in Walnut, Calif.

After winning an 800 event a week later in Victoria, she flew to Italy last Sunday to prepare for Friday’s Golden Gala meet in Florence. The women’s 1,500 at 3:49 p.m. ET will be DeBues-Stafford’s first competition on the Diamond League track and field circuit since a 3:58.62 third-place effort at the Prefontaine Classic on May 28, 2022 in Eugene, Ore.

WATCH | DeBues-Stafford 3rd in final 2022 race before serious injury:

Gabriela Debues-Stafford places 3rd in Diamond League 1,500m race

The Toronto racer finished with a time of 3:58.62 at the World Athletics Diamond League competition in Eugene, Ore.

“I think I was in PB shape [then] or was going to be there towards the end of [last summer],” said DeBues-Stafford, whose best time is 3:56.12 from the 1,500 final at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. “It’s kind of crappy I couldn’t take advantage of that, but we’ll get back there. I have faith.

“I’m continuing to gain confidence in [my] body and workouts are starting to click. I just need to get rid of the jitters and compete with the best in the world … without putting too much pressure on myself. I’m excited.”

WATCH | Foot speed, punishing kick make DeBues-Stafford an elite runner:

What makes Gabriela DeBues-Stafford Canada’s best 1,500-metre runner?

Kate Van Buskirk explains what makes Gabriela DeBues-Stafford so lethal in the 1,500-metre race and how much better Canadians can expect her to get.

The 27-year-old, who was fifth at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, first noticed the signs of her first bone stress injury after moving to Victoria to train in April 2022. She was having trouble after runs of 90 minutes to an hour 45 minutes with tempo work — running a pace you can maintain for a certain length of time.

Not all pain is necessarily bad pain. You get really good at training through [it].— Canadian runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford on her two injuries

“I’m guessing at some point the [sacrum] started to get compromised, and it was a matter of time before it broke,” said DeBues-Stafford, who became the first Canadian woman to run under four minutes in the 1,500 on Aug. 29, 2019, clocking 3:59.59 at the Diamond League Final in Zurich to lower her national mark.

She remembered Stellingwerff, a senior exercise physiologist, voicing concern about the pain she was experiencing on long runs.

“It was hard to communicate the level of pain [I was having] and sometimes you undervalue the type of pain. Not all pain is necessarily bad pain,” DeBues-Stafford said. “You get really good at training through [it].

“There was intense pain in April and May [but] I ran through it. It ebbed and flowed. I was having trouble putting on pants pain-free while bent over on one leg. Now I realize that’s a common symptom for people with sacral stress reactions.

“Once you experience pain,” she continued, “it’s too late and you need to rest. You can train through a lot of injuries but not bone pain.”

Cortisone shot a turning point

DeBues-Stafford didn’t run for seven weeks after diagnosis but was able to walk, do physio and hiking at Week 6. She later began a walk/run program and took 45 days to reach one hour of running continuously. At that point, she started light workouts, but it was “several months” before full workouts.

DeBues-Stafford was dealing with two injuries that required different treatment — the osteitis pubis needs rest but strength work in the gym, while the sacrum also needs rest but took priority since “you can’t do anything with a broken bone.”

“Just surviving,” is how she remembered the toughest days in her recovery. “Training was so mentally exhausting to get through that there wasn’t energy to do [much else].”

DeBues-Stafford endured significant pain when the many muscles around the sacrum atrophied or wasted away and lost effectiveness. It caused the osteitis pubis to become inflamed, but it was calmed by a cortisone shot last December, a “huge turning point” allowing her to move better and make gains in the gym.

Nowadays, she splits her long runs, going 80 minutes with tempo work, followed by another 30-minute workout a few hours later.

DeBues-Stafford has also worked with a dietician post-injury and is training at a higher weight. In turn, she has more energy and is less hungry, which is important from a fuelling standpoint.

Natasha Wodak, the Canadian record holder in the marathon, is also coached by Stellingwerff and has joined DeBues-Stafford on training runs since last fall.

“We’ve meshed well doing workouts together,” Wodak told CBC Sports recently. “She’s a great person all around. She has such a strong work ethic and comes to workouts very professional and ready to work, which I like. We can have fun but at the end of the day this is our job.”

The goal this season for DeBues-Stafford, who holds seven Canadian indoor and outdoor track records, is to race for a medal in August at worlds in Budapest, Hungary.

“I’m not going to beat myself up if that doesn’t happen,” she said. “It’s going to be about getting back to running sub-four [minutes] again, getting back to feeling I can hold my own in competition and feeling more like myself. I believe my [support] team to make that happen.”

Distance runner Moh Ahmed (men’s 5,000), sprinter Aaron Brown (men’s 200) and steeplechase runner Regan Yee (women’s 3,000) are the other Canadians competing in Friday’s Diamond League. Pole vaulter Alysha Newman initially was on the start list but has withdrawn.

Ahmed to run 5K, 10K at worlds

Ahmed, the reigning Olympic silver medallist, stopped the clock in 28 minutes 21.1 seconds to win the Ottawa 10K over fellow Canadian Cam Levins last Saturday for his first national 10K Championships title.

The 32-year-old opens his Diamond League season in Florence and will also race the 5,000 in Monaco (July 21) and Zurich (Aug. 31). In between, the Canadian record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000 told CBC Sports he will enter both events at worlds.

Brown, 31, finished fourth at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix on Saturday in 20.22 seconds. In early May, he was third at the Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar, and a week later won the 200 at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya.

Yee of Hazelton, B.C., is making her second Diamond League appearance after placing 11th (9:44.63) at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic. The 2020 Olympian and 2022 world silver medallist ran to a then-Canadian record of 9:27.54 to reach the Tokyo Olympic qualifying standard.

Yee, 27, has yet to run the steeplechase this season and most recently joined DeBues-Stafford at Track Fest last month, placing second in the 1,500 (4:09.78).

A second scheduled showdown in as many weeks between sprinters Fred Kerley and Marcell Jacobs in the men’s 100 will not take place Friday as the latter continues to be hampered by reported nerve pain, the same issue that forced him to withdraw from Sunday’s Diamond League meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Jacobs, the reigning Olympic champion, has pulled out of six head-to-head meetings because of various ailments, Kerley, the American sprinter who won the world gold medal last summer, was victorious in a meet record 9.94 over South African Akani Simbine (9.99).

WATCH | Kerley beats Simbine for 100m victory in Rabat:

American Fred Kerley victorious in men’s 100m at Diamond League in Morocco

Fred Kerley of the United States wins the men’s 100-metre final with a time of 9.94 at a Diamond League event in Rabat, Morocco.

Kerley and Jacobs recently engaged in a nasty back-and-forth on social media. Kerley was asked on the Sprint Culture video podcast about Jacobs’s runner-up showing (6.50) in the 60 at the March 4 European Indoor Championships that ranks seventh in the world this year. Kerley was second to Jacobs in 2020.

“Indoor is indoor. The real dogs come and play outdoors,” Kerley said.

Jacobs had previously mentioned he is not worried about any world champion American sprinters and took to his Instagram stories. He shared posts with captions like, “The lion doesn’t turn around when a small dog barks” and “Easy run today so as not to scare small dogs.”

Diamond League calendar

• Florence, Italy — Friday
• Paris — June 9
• Oslo, Norway — June 15
• Lausanne, Switzerland — June 30
• Stockholm — July 2
• Silesia, Poland — July 16
• Monaco — July 21
• London — July 23
• Shanghai — July 29
• Shenzhen, China — Aug. 3
• Zurich — Aug. 31
• Brussels — Sept. 8