Injured Runner Experiences All 5 Stages of Grief During Single Run
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A local runner cycled through all five stages of grief during a single 20-minute run yesterday, Dumb Runner has learned, as he dealt with a calf injury.
Charles Brown, 33, had been struggling with pain in his left calf for at least a week, sources said, but began his scheduled five-mile run anyway—and barely made it past the two-mile mark before giving up.
During those 20 minutes of running, according to one witness, Brown reacted to his injury with denial, maintaining that his calf was just “tight,” not actually injured; anger, uttering a series of profane phrases; bargaining, as he pleaded with the universe to just let him get through the run, after which he would let his calf heal completely before running again; depression, as he began to question whether running was even worth it anymore; and, finally, acceptance, upon stopping and deciding to gently walk back home.
Those phases constitute what’s popularly known as the five stages of grief, as described in the late 1960s by the Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Brown has experienced them before, sources said, but never in the context of running, and never quite this rapidly.
“I mean, for him to go from denial to acceptance in a single short run is really something,” said one source close to Brown, who, like the others, requested anonymity. “That’s got to be a PR for him.”
Reached for comment, Brown told Dumb Runner that he was starting to question his decision to cut his run short.
“On second thought,” he said, “I think it’s just some tightness after all.”
