We had a hill interval session going, had done the warm up stuff and were about to start the intervals.

The juniors were taking outer layers off and piling them up at the foot of a tall dry stone wall when it spontaneously collapsed and one of the stones caught one lad a nasty crack to the head. Fortunately he wasn't badly hurt (more shocked than anything), we did some basic first aid and he had a couple of stitches down at Urgent Care later on.

Everything's fine now (I've got an online accident report to do through the uka website but it's fairly straightforward) but I though I'd share it because it taught us a few valuable lessons today;

  1. Always carry the first aid kit. The most bizarre accidents can happen anywhere! This was less than half a mile from the car park and I nearly didn't bother taking the first aid kit. It actually wouldn't have mattered on this occasion because my assistant got his first aid kit out first but even so.
  2. Head wounds bleed a lot! Actually I knew this in theory but to see it happen is quite shocking, especially with a young lad intent on spreading it everywhere! The basic first aid kit has little in the way of absorbent pads/compresses so it's worth thinking about sticking something extra in.
  3. Mandatory kit matters. This incident could easily have happened halfway around a long run, in a cold wind, a couple of miles from decent shelter. I sometimes get sick of hearing myself repeat 'hat/gloves/jacket' to our juniors and their parents but I'm definitely not stopping now. The youngster was mobile but only at a walk, he would have got very cold if he hadn't had jacket and gloves to wear. If you really can't trust your juniors to bring the right kit and you don't want to turn them away then consider carrying some extra emergency stuff yourself; a couple of small fleeces, a thick hat, gloves and a shell take up little space in a rucksack.


Hopefully everyone will take this as useful advice (the self important pedants that roam this forum don't seem to get to the junior pages much!) from someone who learnt something today!

Andy,

Clayton Harriers.