Geoff Martinson isn't a fan of the Greek hero Achilles these days.
The 26-year-old middle-distance runner from Prince George has battled a mysterious Achilles tendon injury for the past few months as he was preparing for the 2012 Canadian Track and Field Olympic Trials in Calgary, June 27-30.
"It was one of those things where I woke up in the morning one day, went to go do a workout and about five minutes into my run there was just a sharp pain," said Martinson. "There was no accident. There was no gradual worsening of the Achilles to get to that. I just woke up and it was there.
"It came on so suddenly and I just hoped it would go away equally as suddenly," he added.
Unfortunately for Martinson, who is seeded third, of 23 runners, for the 1,500 metre men's semifinal today, 6:30 p.m., the injury is still nagging him. The 1,500m final is Friday at 2:30 p.m. with the top three runners earning a 2012 London Olympics berth, if they meet the Canadian time standard of 3:35.50.
Martinson said the injury is just another setback in a string of them this season.
"There's a time standard I need to hit for the Olympics and I certainly wanted to be closer to it," he said, adding his personal best is 3:37.56. "Because last year went really well and my training this year went really well it's been tough to have races not go as well as they needed to.
"When you get to this level of running you do everything as close to perfect as you can and hope that it works out," said Martinson. "At this level, sometimes it's just about having luck when you need it, unfortunately things haven't worked out in my favour this season."
Only one runner, Nathan Brannen (3:34.22) has hit the Canadian Olympic qualifying standard in the 1,500m this season. Brannen and Taylor Milne (3:36.71) are the only two runners to have better PBs than Martinson.
His rivals are 30- and 29-years-old respectively, but Martinson said he doesn't see himself holding on for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
"This is my only Olympic chance; I'm not going to try for the next one," said the graduate of Prince George secondary school. "It is coming pretty close to the end of my career. After the season I'll have to sit down, re-access and think if I want to go another year. Do I feel like I'm happy with where I've gotten to in my career? Is it time to go on to something new?"
Martinson arrived in Calgary on Tuesday to get ready for his race, having spent the weekend in Flagstaff, Arizona at an altitude of 7,000 feet.
"It's about twice as high as Calgary but it just helps adapt to the altitude," he said, adding he's had a lot of therapy on his Achilles in the past three weeks to try and fix his leg problem.
His frustration with the timing of the injury is heard in Martinson's voice when he talks about it, but he said he's determined to push through it.
"It definitely adds another level of difficulty to an already hard task of trying to make the Olympics," said Martinson.
