Runny Boo Boo Child

Road Rash SUCKS! Day One.

Workout Updates:
Last Saturday: 8 miles (the Ugly Eight)
Monday: 3.31 miles
Thursday: 5.0 miles
Today: 8.0 miles

I'm not the most coordinated person in the world. Despite 20 years of dance lessons throughout childhood and college, I'm still very clumsy. When I started running, it seemed to be a safe choice for me with my limited coordination. We will not discuss how my one and only tennis lesson went. Well, I guess running and talking at daybreak isn't a good combo for me.

Last Saturday I wiped out pretty good at mile 3, skinning both of my hands, bruising my left knee and right hip and getting a horrible road rash on my right elbow. Brilliant.

Lumpy knee, day three.

Day 5 in my dress at LGA

We were crossing a road with those elevated white cups that create a make-shift turn lane/median in the road. I guess I was being a bit lazy and not picking up my feet like I should and my toe caught one of the cups. If I hadn't been carrying my water bottle, I think I would have caught myself with both of my hands and avoided the road rash.

It stung like crazy, but I poured some water (with Nuun in it) on my wounds and just kept going. Stopping to walk for a minute at mile six actually hurt my knee worse than running, so we picked back up the pace and finished up strong.

Back home, I iced my knee like crazy and applied Arnicare Gel every hour or so to try and avoid the giant bruise that I knew would crop up. After all, I bruise if you look at me sideways. I think this combo helped it not become totally black and blue until a few days later. I still wore a dress to a new business meeting on Wednesday and felt OK with how it looked.

I was sore from my bruises, but nothing has hurt worse than the road rash. I've had cuts and scrapes like any kid, maybe a few more. I fell off my horse in 2007 and was stepped on and dragged. But nothing has throbbed and hurt like my elbow. It is still ugly, gooey and gross. But I'm keeping it clean and covered and taking Advil when it gets uncomfortable. According to my research, road rash should be kept moist to avoid scaring. I'm hoping this advice is correct. My research also tells me that I'm in for another two weeks of this crap.

It hasn't stopped me from running this week. Although my miles were low - a combination of business travel and me not wanting to push my badly bruised knee too far - it felt good. Especially today as we ran the same route as last week's Ugly Eight (as it will be forever known). A little redemption today with a great run, beautiful sunrise and great company.