Radial head fracture

This is to give hope to anyone who might have a similar injury. I had been following the 5 month beginner triathlete program for Olympic distance race (although the race was amended by race time to be 800m swim, 18.5 bike, and 4 mile run). I had been training prior to that to get my base conditioning up for a year. Exactly 6 weeks before the race I fell off the side of my bike and landed on my out stretched arm. My arm was diagnosed with a non displaced radial head fracture and I of course was crushed at the thought of not being able to reach my goal of doing the highly visualized triathlon. The arm was not casted as that would have impeded my ability to perform passive and active range of motion of my elbow. I gently coaxed the arm along with frequent as tolerated range of motion exercises...gentle being the key word. I road a stationary bike through all the bike sessions, and used flippers to aide my swim while avoiding any resistance on the broken arm. Running was really impossible for the next 4 weeks but I hiked up hills. At 4 weeks I started using the arm a little and by week 6 I could actually freestyle without too much difficulty. Riding my road bike was rough due to the vibration .I was happy I could shift and brake and figured the discomfort on race day would be ok but I would stick to the stationary bike until then. My times were of course much slower but not by too much. I am very happy to report I completed my race successfully. And the arm was really only a little achey. I did need help lifting the bike on and off the car since I still wasn't supposed to lift anything. And I did not fall off the bike! Race times were far better than I had imagined without the injury. Nothing like a little adrenaline and the sheer joy of reaching a goal to speed you along.