Davis Armstrong breaks both legs
Four months into quarantine, Davis Armstrong, sophomore, broke both his legs while out running. Armstrong started running for NPHS early in high school. “I started running freshman year with no running experience,” Armstrong said.
“I wanted to become [a ] varsity [runner], so I just put in as much work as I could, with the time that I had, trying to improve myself,” he said.
Near the end of the season when he was preparing to start training for track and field, the coronavirus struck. Due to the quarantine, Armstrong trained alone for months, until practice started again in August.
“I just started running with my friends and about like two miles in [I felt] just a really sudden pain came [on] my right leg,” Armstrong said. “I just couldn’t run, I couldn’t even walk on it.” Two weeks later, after an MRI, the true cause of his pain was revealed. “It turned out I had three stress fractures… I had two in my right leg … and then I had one on my left and it didn’t hurt ever so I didn’t even know I had it,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong was required to wear boots over his injured legs, making him essentially immobile. “I couldn’t do any physical activity…so I was just kind of sitting around,” Armstrong said. “It was just summer so I just dusted off my guitar and then I started playing. I would just sit and play for hours a day, and…I started writing a few songs.”
As Armstrong’s legs began to heal, he no longer had to wear the boots. His right leg healed faster than his left. Once his doctor cleared him for activities such as swimming. “I would just swim every day…do laps back and forth and I eventually learned that I actually really liked to swim,” he said.
“I would always think in the moment when I was running, but I actually think I need to think more in the future.” he said, “I was taking [running] seriously before but… this has… brought the way I look at physical activity, especially…view it with… utmost importance of how I do it,” Armstrong said. “It was definitely one of the biggest experiences and hardships of my life so far.”
