Wednesday, January 6, 2010

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

This is what my foot looked like on Christmas Eve. I guess two marathons in 7 days was too much for the poor guy. I lost this toenail in 2008 after the Goofy Challenge and I'm willing to bet that after running Dopey this year (Goofy Challege plus the 5K the day before) that toenail is going to be ready to disengage from my foot.


On December 29th I was out on a 12 miler. It was the first time I was running more than 8 miles in over 2 weeks. At mile 10 I twisted my left ankle (on some miniscule rock, no doubt), and fell flat on my face (or more accurately, flat on my collar bone -- realized I had a small cut there later). I popped back up and was running again almost before I even realized I had fallen. My handheld water bottle in my right hand broke most of my fall. At the time I was most concerned with the dirt-rash on my left palm and about my twisted ankle. But as I kept running I looked down and saw thick blood running down my right leg.


All I could think was, "Noooo!! Not the Balegas!!" I have to say, if you ever want to get your mind off of the pain of running at mile 11 when your poor body hasn't run much lately, just fall, bleed, and worry about if you can get home before the blood trail maims your favorite socks.

By the time I got home it had dried and cracked and wasn't nearly as gnarly looking. But I took a photo anyway. In the end, the cuts on my knee were so wimpy I'm pretty perturbed about how they bled so much.

11 comments:

Hef's Mom said...

1. EEWWW!
2. I hate when minor cuts bleed so much! I had one over my eye bleed so bad I was sent from school to the hospital and its a dinky little scar now.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Gold Bond makes antiseptic wipes in individual packets. I always have one with me on my long runs, and I always have a bandanna. That way if I decide to conduct a bone density self-test (IOW, fall down like an idiot), I can fix myself up a bit so I don't scare anyone.

I'm glad you're okay. A lot of times those little cuts and scrapes look worse than they really are.

Chocolate & Chants said...

Poor little toe nail!

I wonder how other people who were out there reacted to seeing blood on your leg?

Alisa said...

Oh no! Poor knee. I've definitely eaten it a few times. On my bike I carry bandaids and mini antiseptic wipes =).

Poor toenail...though really once in 2 years is nothing on me chica!

Lisa said...

So true about blood as a distraction. I fell once during a race and had a similar trail of blood as in your photo. But my mind was on my shoes instead of my socks.

RG said...

Wimp ... just take your pliers and pull the darn thing out. Then you won't ever have to worry about that again.

Seriously .. what part of "stay Healthy" are you having difficulty with??

On the other hand ... some really good races have been run when the body has been battered a bit! And .. maybe all the 2010 injuries are bunching up and will all be over for the whole year!

Good luck in Fla!

Chic Runner said...

Holy cow! I did not expect that when I opened this post. ha ha And i love that the two top comments are from bunnies! :) Yikes on that knee and that toe! Sheesh girl, be careful out there!

X-Country2 said...

Dang girl! You take care of yourself.

Mica said...

Nice job finishing that last mile post-fall. (As a similar thing happened to me recently, I would like to express my condolences and insist that had I been driving by, I would have rolled down my window and asked if you were okay!)

EndorphinBuzz said...

Here's to hoping you come back with all your nails and toes intact from Dopey. Good luck!

Deb Cushman said...

Ow, ouch, ew! We're sorry for your owies! (And when you've got great socks, you have to protect them!!)