Trashbags and Trashed Knees

I hope this comes off as a tale of my perseverance but most likely I just sound like the ridiculous and somewhat (okay very) clutzy person that I am.

Once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night (why quote one overused story opening when you could use two?), I went running. I followed through with my plan (see last blog post) and braved the rain for my run. The pluses? It felt great, I barely noticed the rain, it was way easier than I thought it would be to "get back" into running, and I ended up covering around 4.5 miles, which wasn't too shabby considering my previous running hiatus. The minuses? Well, I didn't feel the rain because I oh-so-intelligently decided to run around Berkeley wearing a white garbage bag over my torso in order to protect myself from the rain. Honestly, the bag wasn't as bad as it sounds - the color and texture reflected car lights and I barely noticed the, ahem, plastic rustling noise. However, I got my fair share of gawking/perplexed looks from Berkeley residents battling the rain with their umbrellas. Oh, and an enthusiastic fist pump from one individual sitting on a street corner. Go me!

And thennn last night came around. In a decision that complete deviated from my normal acts of brilliance, I waited allll day to go running and once again ran at night. After months of running without tripping or injuring myself, I repeated the same blunder that first occurred on a run back in October. I didn't lift up my feet. I hit an uneven curb. And I fell.

To give myself some credit, I attempted to keep running after this less-than-graceful accident. When I looked down and saw blood pooling in my socks and shoes (borrowed shoes at that - sorry Rachel!) and realized that my knees looked like they had lost a fight with a cheese grater and a paper shredder, I had to stop. It was time to turn home for a little patch up work. Here is the climax of my story! (Duhhn duhhhn duhhhhhnnnn) After a little clean-up job, I went back out and ran! I got to experience ANOTHER night of people gawking - this time it was my oversized and slightly bloody bandages (sorry for the image) on both knees that drew attention, but I still went through with it! A little slower, a little sorer, but sure as hell a little wiser. From that day on (yes this was just yesterday) I never dragged my feet again. The End.

They say pain is gain, so hopefully my sore knees and elbows will somehow allow me to become incredibly fast and will increase my endurance. I'm about to run right now - we'll see!