Time for [a] fall

This morning, I left my 3 favorite people at home and went out into the fresh morning for a run. 7 minutes later I regretted that decision.

Just as I was starting to cruise along and enjoy the cool September air, my toe caught on a piece of dust. I went flying and smacked into the pavement hard.

A good Samaritan lady happened to be driving by at that very moment. She saw my bloody blunder and drove me home. I walked into our apartment about 10 minutes after I left, dripping blood. OW. Once I got bandaged up and the pain receded to a dull ache, I realized how embarrassing this fall was—there was no dog chasing me, no startling crazy driver, no biker to bump into me, no uneven trail, NOTHING! And I went sprawling. That lady probably laughed before she got out to help me! Sigh.

Back on the SVU cross country team, I fell all the time. We had a team fall tally—I was in the lead for 3 of my 4 seasons there, I think. It’s no picnic being clumsy. I haven’t fallen on the run in a long time. I’ve had these long legs for nearly a decade—I should be able to control them by now!

I hope you aren’t queasy yet—this is the last gory picture I’ll post, even though once we cleaned out my knees they look even more…impressive? They have huge gashes and they’re all puffy from the bruises. I can’t really bend my right leg very far.

Speaking of queasy, washing all the dirt and tiny rocks out of my wounds made me feel sick. I even used my childbirth pain-control techniques (shallow breathing and forcing my brain to ignore the pain while doing a “mental chant”—something like ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessthiswillbeoversoonOW, repeated over and over). I was still kind of pathetic while Jeff bandaged me up. I whimpered and moaned and trembled.

At last the ordeal was over, and I could let Rose comfort me with her soft, sweet little self.

As silly as this may sound, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to run more before I fell. I’m glad I wasn’t farther from home when I fell, but I’m sad that I missed out on the therapy of a run today. And I’ll probably miss out on a few more runs next week, all thanks to that big speck of dust.