I Picked a Fight With the Sidewalk...

...and the sidewalk won!

First - the story.

I decided to go for a long run yesterday afternoon, after Duke's vet appointment. The half marathon is in 2 weeks, and I haven't been running. I felt pretty good, but didn't want to push too hard so I figured 6 miles, with the Haan bridge in the middle. Meanwhile, J took Remy out for an easy 3.

I got over the bridge and right where it levels out, my toe caught on some bit of sidewalk that sticks out the tiniest little bit. I had this horrid sensation of slowed time. I knew I was falling. Then I knew I couldn't catch myself and that I was going to go down hard. WHAM! My face hit the cement.

The next few minutes felt like much longer, but I know in reality it was just a few minutes. I sat up and tried to wipe at some of the blood coming from my nose. I had to catch my breath and consciously slow my breathing. I pulled my cell phone out from my water belt pocket and dialed J.

Lucky point #1 - I don't usually take my cell phone with me on runs, but randomly decided to grab it for this one.

No answer from J. Another runner came by and stopped to see if I was OK. He helped me up and I told him I was going to walk over to my friend's house. Somewhere in all of this, I don't really know when, I picked up my sunglasses and put them on my head. I called Rebecca and asked how to get to her house. Turns out I just had to walk across the dirt lot and - voila! - there's Rebecca's house!

Lucky point #2 - Fell a few feet from a friend's house, and she was home.

Rebecca cleaned me up a bit and stuck some bandaids on me, then took me home. I had since left J a voicemail and text. Tried a few more calls with no answer. On the way home, I grabbed my sunglasses off my head and notice that the right lens is all scratched up.

Lucky point #3 - My sunglasses got scratched, not my eye. I don't know how bad it would have been if I hadn't been wearing those glasses.

We pulled up into the driveway, which J was walking around in. He said at first he thought I might have just gotten tired. Then, as he walked around the truck, he started seeing more - bandages, blood. Finally I opened the door and got out and he saw it all.

Problem was, We'd accidentally locked ourselves out. Rebecca called her husband who got us the number to maintenance. They sent someone out to unlock our house. Of course, that took almost half an hour. And the sun went down, so it got cold. We were shivering out front, waiting, so J told me to walk over to the Shopette just 2 blocks away and get warm. I made it 1 block when I saw the maintenance van come by and turn on our street. I turned back around.

They got us in, and were very nice. I went to the bathroom and inspected myself some more. I really looked like shit. I mean really. I looked horrid.

I started cleaning up a bit, got my pajamas on, and J ordered some pizza. He made me a cup of tea, since I was still rather cold, and I sat on the couch for a while. We ate pizza, ate dessert, which J ordered because he thought it would make me feel better, and it did, then I was ready to try a shower.

Talk about pathetic! J had to wash my hair for me. The hot water helped me feel so much better. I took some pain killers and went to bed after a nice chat with my mom.

At one point, somewhere between pizza and shower, I noticed that my nose ring was gone. I believe my sunglasses may have scraped down my nose, catching the nose ring and pulling it out. It was a bead style ring, which means a straight pin with a bead at the end. I cleaned up the piercing and put my old nose screw in it.

Now for the fun part - pictures! I took pics this morning.

This is my nose. There is a big gash at the top which bled quite a bit, and scrapes down both sides. You can also see my fat lip and the road rash on my right cheek.

My chin got a big scrape, and you can see more of the lip here as well.

My left hand is scraped, bruised, and swollen. All around the pinkie knuckle. I have road rash on the heels of my palms as well, both hands, and on my right shoulder.

This is my left knee. It did this through my running tights. You can't really see the bruising yet, but I know it's there. It's very tender, as is the left hand. The right knee just has a little scrape.

And here I am the next morning, with clean bandaids to go grocery shopping. I got many strange looks, but no one said a word to me about it. I'm sure more bruises will be showing up in the next few days. My jaw is rather sore, probably from hitting it on the pavement.

I feel much better today and even made myself some scrambled eggs for breakfast. Grocery shopping wore me out, though. I'll be taking it easy this afternoon and just working on the newsletter that I need to get out. I had already scheduled a doctor's appointment for Thursday morning for something else entirely, so I may as well have him check how I'm healing when I go in.

I really do look like someone beat the shit out of me. I'm lucky I didn't break my nose. I'm kinda lucky in general. This whole incident could have been so much worse. I have no clue right now if I'll be able to run the half marathon on the 14th. I'll give it a couple days and see how I do. It's mostly my knee that would hold me back in that area. I'll let the scrape heal up and see how I am then.