My First Injury

Today marks the beginning of week 6 and here I sit with my 1st injury. Do not worry too much however because I am sure that I will be back to running in a day or two. There are many stories that I wish I could tell about how my actions resulted in injury. I could dream up an amazing story that would impress even a true runner and athlete. Alas, my injury did not occur on the “race track” (better known as my neighborhood route). It is embarrassing to admit, but my injury occurred because I was attempting to hurry. Some of you may be familiar with my clumsiness and if not then after I explain what happened you will never doubt that attribute of mine again. Please enjoy the story.

I took my much needed day of rest on Monday and I planned to run yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon once my husband arrived home from work. The day was a bit hectic, but nothing out of the ordinary. I had already accomplished most of my busy day when my clumsiness attacked.

I was teaching my US Government class and we were preparing to watch a movie. I know you are thinking how could such a seemingly safe activity cause my first injury? Well, in order to operate the DVD player I had to leave the classroom to press the start button on the machine that is set-up in the other room. The movie would then play on the TV in the classroom. Again, seems like a very easy and basic task and one that would not require any physical exertion. That would be the case except that I was involved.

For some reason, I decided that I would run (literally) to the other room to press the start button. The running to the button was not the problem; however, the running back to the classroom was a disaster. As I look back on this event in my life, I ask myself one main question: “Why were you running when you did not have to be running?” I do not know how to answer that except to say that I saw it as hurrying. As I ran back to the room (at a much faster pace than when I am actually training) I lost my balance and completely rolled my ankle and wiped out. Yes, yes, I was that teacher. What I did not realize at that moment was that this act of clumsiness was not going to be short lived.

I quickly got up and brushed myself off as I reassured my students that I was just fine. I was hoping that the soreness and pain would go away by the end of class, but it looks as though it is here to stay for a little while. It really is not bad, but the soreness does require me to limp slightly. If I were not training for a marathon I probably would just think of it as yet another time that my clumsiness caused me a bit of discomfort. This “injury” is quite a set back for this week and I have to admit that I am frustrated. I really do not need anything to discourage me from running and I worry that when I get back to it that my miserably slow pace will only have become even slower.

I never thought that I would be upset because I cannot go for a run. This is a very interesting situation for me to have to endure. Yesterday I even tried to run through the pain, but when I attempted the run, it looked more like a limping fast-paced walk. Therefore, I did not get my run in yesterday (Tuesday) and I am taking off today as well. I am hoping for a run tomorrow. Did I actually type those words? Just what is happening to this non-runner? Until my next run…

Quote for Week 6:
“Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks.”