More Than a Feeling

Sunday’s Run (9/26/10)

My crazy lab life has resumed, and it was with eager beaver ambition that I was in the lab on Sunday night, watching flies have sex.  Seriously.  And those males—talk about eager!  I know it sounds like I’m being salacious here, but I’m just relaying facts here, people: Sunday, lab, fly sex.

Anyway, I wanted a way to roll my long run into this trip to campus and decided to make my commute home a running work-out.  When executed, this plan worked out beautifully: a 20-minute run, preceded by a 10-minute walking warm-up, took me almost all the way to my front door.  To do my cool-down, I had to go past my door and then backtrack.  I had feared that I’d get done with my 20 minutes of running and still have another 20 minutes of walking to do, but I must have underestimated my ability to cover the distance with my speedy legs.

Did I say the plan worked out beautifully?  That’s a half-truth.  My plan had two snags.  The first was that this running route is a lot of stop-and-go traffic, so it’s not great for endurance because there are too many resting moments.  But it’s fun running through campus, and it’s really nice to be able to commute home quickly on two feet.  The other snag was more like a flying leap where I landed not on my feet but on my hands and knees.  I was running along when all of a sudden I was airborne, in the worst way possible.  I must have tripped over the metal supports of a road sign, and I went flying.  I landed so hard that I was sure I would be completely, horrifyingly bloody—a terrifying thought.  I picked myself up and saw that the damage wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared, though I do have a nice slit of a wound on the side of my left knee.  My palms absorbed most of the impact, and they were bruised and bloody.  My left palm went numb for a while, but it didn’t hurt very much.

I could have easily broken something, so I am very, very grateful that I was still in one piece after my fall.  In all my years of running, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a fall that bad, so I’m a little stunned by the whole thing.  My left knee is a little sore, but I think it will heal quickly.

The lesson?  Watch where you’re going!  Yikes.