One thing that I somehow managed to avoid in 5+ years of running is falling during a run. Well, there’s a first time for everything.
I was running along this morning, about three quarters of a mile into my run, when I heard a guy yell, “Emma, no!”
Oh, crap. I knew exactly what that meant before I even turned my head. Emma was a dog that had gotten away from her owner and was running at me. When I looked, I saw her. She was small, barely larger than a cat, and black. It was hard to make out any other details, as it was still dark out, and my headlamp only provides so much light. I don’t actually remember hearing her bark, so I’m really glad that her owner said something. She got near my feet and I tried to avoid either kicking her or stepping on her. I managed to not harm her, but in the process, I lost my balance and fell down in the street.
My hands and my right leg just below my knee got the worst of it, but it was just a few scrapes and cuts. I got right back up and started running again. The adrenaline really kicked in at this point, because this was my fastest pace of the entire run.
Eventually, the adrenaline wore off, and after about a mile, I realized that I was bleeding on my right hand, and possibly my right leg, although that was tougher to tell while running in near darkness. I also figured that bleeding while my heart rate was elevated from running was probably a bad thing, so I ran home, but I had no intention of stopping my run. I cleaned up the wounds as well as I could, slapped on a couple of Band-Aids, went back out there, and ran almost 4 more miles, for a grand total of 6 miles for the entire run. (I was supposed to do a longer workout run, but with the stoppage, I figured 6 miles easy was really all I had time for.) They weren’t 4 great miles, but considering the circumstances, the fact that I was still out there running was an accomplishment.
So, yeah, I fell down, but I got back up and kept going. I’ve got less than 3 weeks until New York City. It’s going to take a lot more than a little black dog to stop me.