Trail Note: The Fall

Monday I went on my last big (second of 2, 20 milers) run before Boston. I got on the road at a decent time, the weather was great (sunny, upper 40's), and I my legs felt pretty good; all was going great. Then, just after I passed the 6 mile mark, I tripped and fell. I don't even know what I tripped over; I had been putting my water bottle back in its holder, running in the dirt path next to the paved trail, and the next think I knew I was falling. I landed full out flat, like I land when I fall snowboarding (don't want to break a wrist), and hit hardest on the front of my left hip bone, with some minor bumps and scrapes on my left elbow, right palm, and right knee. I considered turning around and heading home at that point, but considering that I'd have still had to run 6 more miles and would need to do that 20 miler at some point (I'd already missed a 19 and a 20 miler when I was sick in February), I decided to shake things off, brush off the dirt, and continue running. A few miles later I stopped briefly in a park to refill my water and use the rest room. As I started running again, in addition to the pain from the bruise forming on my hip, I felt an odd pain in my chest, on the left side. I looked down and was surprised to see that there was dirt on my shirt there. It stopped hurting once I got going again, however, and assumed that I pulled a muscle a bit as I was trying to break my fall. I finished the run feeling pretty strong with an average pace of 9:20 minutes per mile.

As the week has gone on, the pain in the chest has gotten worse. My current thought is that I bruised (or maybe cracked?) a rib when I fell. It still hurts when I breath deeply, turn over in bed, and especially when I sneeze. I tried to run yesterday and managed to get in a very very slow 4 miles, but it hurt the whole time, and in trying to minimize the pain, I've knotted up my back.

I think things are a little better this morning. I'm going to try another run today and hopefully things will have loosened up. I got a packet in the mail from the Boston Athletic Association yesterday; we fly to Boston in 2 weeks. I'm sure that all will be good by then.

Introducing my dad, the Beekeeper

Taken this weekend at my parents' home on Nomini Creek.

Woo hoo, Spring Break!!

Oddly enough (okay, not so odd), Spring Break as a 33 year old is a little different from SB as a 21 year old. In fact, the only things this break has in common with my undergraduate breaks are the upped sugar intake and disappointly cold weather. Oh, and basketball, of course.

How I'm spending my Spring Vacation:

Working (getting a head start on my research assistant hours for the spring quarter)
Watching the NCAA tournament (Go Duke!!)
Facilitating the youth leadership program I work with
Planning for next year's leadership program (so that I have minimal time commitment next year)
Reading (my first non-school book in 2006!)
Running (this is my last big week before the taper!)
Eating
Turbo taxing
Catching up on "my shows" (Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy)
Wedding planning (searching searching searching for a photographer and traveling to VA)

Unfortunately, the break has been more about working and less about relaxing. There's tons of fun stuff I wanted to do like make beer, read more books, learn how to use the jewelry-making equipment that I got for Christmas, bond with my couch, etc., but there's just not that much time. Ten days without looming deadlines, reading lists, and class stress is vacation enough, however. It's nice to be able to come home in the evenings and just be home, without school work hanging over my head. Now, if I could just talk Jeff into a little trip to Fort Lauderdale...

Busy

So, again no posts for a while. Needless to say, it's been a bit busy here, in a boring finals-papers-running kinda way. I have a 10-12 page paper due today that I've written, oh, about 1 1/2 pages of. (But it's all up here, in my head; hope for no head injuries in the next 48 hours).

Yesterday I ran my first 20 miler and it didn't feel too bad. It was an amazing day: sunny with temperatures topping off in the high 40's. Perfect for a long run. A few recent sights from the trail:

- A little girl, maybe 4 at the most, biking along on her 2 wheeler (no training wheels) accompanied by her dad on roller blades and black lab pup. She biked along side of me for several miles. I'm looking out for her at the 2020 Olympic games. They make the cutest tights for little girls, btw; I see them everywhere.
- A one-legged cyclist. He was not only biking, but was able to do that balance at stoplights thing that I've never mastered.
- A young woman biking along with a dog (some kind of miniature something that looked like it belonged to Paris Hilton) in her backpack.
- A man finishing up his 5 hour training run; he's preparing for a 50-miler next month (made me feel like a wimp on my measly 3 hour run).
- Bike after bike after bike with brightly spandexed riders. I'm really looking forward to getting back on my road bike for > my 3 mile commute once this marathon-thingy is all over.

FYI: Did you know that if you bike to work in the same blue jeans over and over that eventually they'll wear a hole in the crotch? Apparently Levi's were only designed for one type of saddle.

It is a Good Body

Last Saturday night (after a terrific sushi dinner), my sister and I saw Eve Ensler's one-woman show, The Good Body. It was hilarious and touching and, of course, thought provoking. It deals with women's hatred of their bodies, or specific parts of their bodies, starting with Eve's relationship with her not-so-perfect stomach, and then moving to women around the US and around the world. One of Ensler's main points is that if women could stop spending so much time focusing on trying to fix that which is not broken, we could redirect that energy to addressing issues that really matter in the world.

The next day, I rode the Chilly Hilly, a 33 mile bike ride around Bainbride Island that lives up to its name (it's rolling hills throughout, and I was very happy to be wearing foot-warmers, thick gloves, and an ear band the entire ride). Fortunately, we once again avoided the rain and had an overcast sky with temperatures in the 40's. As I climbed hill after hill passing lots of fit looking riders, I really did appreciate my "good body." While I certainly spend a lot of time fixated on what I don't like about it, running and staying active helps me to appreciate all of the great things that it can do and how good it can feel. While it may not be the prettiest body, it's not designed for show; it's designed for the road. And it performs pretty well out there.