I’m going to tell this story, Tarantino style…

I fell today. Hard.

The last time I did a legit, long marathon training run was late September 2011 and I was 26. It was 2 weeks out from the Chicago Marathon and my training wasn’t going well. All the “long runs” ended short because I was constantly dealing with knee pain. It didn’t matter how much ice i sat with, how much i stretched, ran on grass or dirt, or slowed down, when I hit any mile # over 8 the knee pain was there making it uncomfortable to continue.

In a last ditch effort to get somewhat of a long run in before the big day, i headed out to do “about 15” or something that would give me confidence going into the marathon. The thing was, it worked. I made it through 15. I remember feeling great the whole time, I also remember listening to “Good Day Sunshine” by The Beatles any time i felt tired. I had that burst of runner energy and confidence once i got close to 15–I CAN DO ANYTHING!!! I AM AWESOME! And then a very cold, autumn rain came down, so i called it a decent last run and headed home to begin tapering. We all know how that marathon went, and if you don’t you can read here. It wasn’t great, but i finished it and eventually figured out the injury.

Today, with 15 miles on the schedule, I was a little nervous but totally excited! I haven’t done this in such a long time. It took me about 45 minutes to get out of the house. I felt really scattered—i couldn’t make easy decisions! I couldn’t decide what to wear, how many GU’s to bring, NUUN or plain water, sunglasses or hat, tshirt or tank.

I did remember to roll out my calves, which were still tight..

And I admired my toes, because I finally painted them…betcha can’t guess which one is the purple toenail. You know you’re a runner when you only wear black, purple or blue polish.

Once I finally left on my trek, I was happy, and I easily fell into about 8:35ish/pace. I wanted to stick around 8:30 and once I hit 10 miles, speed up about 15-20 seconds/mile for the last 5. That was the plan. The sidewalk however, thought it would be hilarious to trip me and screw up an almost perfect long run.

WIth sunglasses on while running in the shade, I didn’t see the half inch of sidewalk portruding up. The tip of my shoe hit hard and pulled me down fast, smacking my kneecaps on the ground.

100 thoughts sped through my mind in about 45 seconds.

Did that really just happen to me? How many people saw it. OHMYGOD I broke my kneecaps! I don’t need knees to run do i??.. i’ll be fine, it happens! Are you gonna cry!? You are NOT going to cry, it’s not a big deal.. great you’re laughing now, you’re officially a crazy person. Sit down and breathe. Hey, it’s not that bad.. it totally looks worse than it is. Oh god it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, and now it’s burning.. A hole? I tore my new favorite capris?? You have GOT to be KIDDING ME!! Okay, big picture, how the hell am i going to make it 6 miles home?? You’re gonna run. That’s what you’re doing today, a LONG run, bashed up knees or not, you’re running. GOOD, cause now i’m PISSED and i’m gonna finish this 15 miles if it’s the last thing my knees do!

Once I regained my sanity, I went on to finish my run. I ended up stopping 4-5 times on the way back to check that my knees weren’t swelling or bleeding or broken. My pace did end up a little faster for those last 5 miles and I felt good. I didn’t realize the road rash I got on my hip, or my arm until I got home. When I went down, i rolled a little and got skinned up, but not as bad as I could have been. I’m so happy it wasn’t worse or I didn’t break something, especially that far out from home.

Is it me or is it sick that once I was running and the shock of what happened wore off, i thought to myself “well…at least it will make a good blog post” haha.

Oh and as i’m laughing about it now, i have a smiley face on my knee!

 

You know the obvious question. Ever fall down?

It’s been years since I ate it, and it was no where near as bad as this.