Scott Hollas took a spectacular fall during the dads’ race, which was captured on film
By Joanne Macaulay
BBC Scotland news
Two Scottish dads have issued a warning to other parents about the potential dangers attached to school sports day.
They both ended up in hospital after coming a cropper in the parents’ race.
Scott Hollas from Fort William ran his way to the A&E waiting room after joining in his daughter’s school race.
And Prof Donald Bloxham from Edinburgh ended up in an ambulance with three weeks off work after trying to replicate a previous victory.
Scott Hollas from Fort William ripped the ligaments in his leg and lost a week at work
As the end of term approaches in Scotland, the pair told BBC News there may be pressure from your children to perform, but it does not always go to plan.
Dreams of winning like three-time Olympic champion Shelley-Ann Fraser Pryce did at her son’s sports day in April should be that – dreams.
Olympic champion Fraser-Pryce runs in son’s sports day
When Scott, 49, took part in the dads’ race at his daughter’s first sports day, he did not expect to become a local parent race legend.
He said it was all about the taking part, and doing it for the children, even though he is not a regular runner.
He took a spectacular fall which was captured on film, but limped on regardless, and was relieved not to be last across the finishing line.
‘Gas and air’
However, then the pain began.
“My knee starting getting really sore and I honestly thought it was going to explode,” he said.
“The skin just kept rising. My wife took me to A&E at the Belford hospital and I fainted three times with the pain.
“They had me on gas and air to calm me down. I had severely torn ligaments right down my leg and I was off work for a week.
“So, dads’ race – terrible idea.”
Image source, Scott Hollas
Scott Hollas felt his knee swell up after the race where he took a tumble
There was a similar fate for Donald who was confident that he’d romp home against the other dads in his daughters’ school sports day.
He said: “I had this memory of victory at my daughters’ nursery school sports day six years before and I though I could replicate this in front of a larger crowd.
“I was ignoring the fact that I hadn’t broken into a run for about five years, and ignoring the fact that my shoes had no grip and that I hadn’t done any warm-up or stretching at all.
He added: “I ambitiously broke into a sprint, then that leg twanged and the other leg twanged and I knew something had gone seriously wrong with my hamstrings.”
Prof Donald Bloxham felt one leg go, then the other as he raced for his pride in his daughter’s beach sports day
Donald finished the race but then collapsed three times on his way home and an ambulance had to be called.
He was off work for three weeks.
“There’s massive pressure in this situation and this is a great opportunity for kudos,” he said.
“But instead it turned out that hubris was the name of the game followed by nemesis in the form of ripped hamstrings, and a rather embarrassing performance which I’m doing my hardest to wipe from memory. ”
Edinburgh mum and member of the Bad Parents’ club radio panel, Jojo Fraser is looking forward to her children’s sports day and is limbering up for the mums’ race.
She is expecting all types of parents to be taking part.
“There are the ones with full-on active wear – the proper running shoes, and they mean business, the full gear.
“Then you have those in suits who’re at their desk a lot and it’s quite a lot for them to be running and they’re quite nervous.
“And then you have the hippy people who’ve got their crystals in their pockets and their crocs on and they’re just going with the flow, seeing what happens.”
Jojo believes a strange competitive edge creeps in to the playground amongst parents on sports day.
She said: “Maybe you think ‘I’m not really going to go for this’, but once you’re there and you see everyone and you’ve got a bit of an audience and people are watching you think ‘I want to win this, I didn’t think I wanted to win this, but I want to win.'”
However Scott Hollas is happy to hang up his trainers, and since his incident the school have changed the parents’ sprint to a more genteel pursuit.
The school where Scott Hollas injured himself has now adopted the more genteel egg and spoon race.
Scott added “The headmaster said four or five adults were hurt due to the incidents.
They have changed the rules so it’s now the egg and spoon or the sack race. Not a proper running race.”
He added that he dodged any kind of parents race this year though.
“I managed to avoid the sports day because my car broke down.”
But he will never be allowed to forget his first and last dads’ sprint.
He said: “Every year it comes up on Facebook and every year everyone has a laugh at work or school. In fact it’s due again soon.
“I don’t mind – everyone has a laugh about it and so do I.”
