runner...

do you remember my love/hate relationship with running?  i sure do, it's been years of doing it to make sure i am not embarrassed at a race, never getting the love of it.  doing it to try to not become the "wife could eat no lean" (have you seen my runner of a hubby?)

recently i have been running two mornings a week, at the CRACK of dawn (actually until the time change this weekend, it was before the crack of dawn!!)...i also run on the weekends, often with the same women.  we have been doing well, getting the chance to push a little, bond a lot, and definitely improve!  we are all grateful to our fearless leader (our friend who is a real runner, winner of many races, and a very patient woman!). 

somehow i have gotten to the place of loving these runs!  don't get confused, i HATE the getting out of bed, the cold, the dark, but...i really love the run!

well, all this is still not enough to make me feel like a real runner, just a woman tagging along behind greatness.

until yesterday morning...

running along as the sun was about to break into the sky, we took the turn to head back, our half way mark...and down i went.  HARD!  my ankle fell off a crack in the road and buckled under me.  i hit the pavement.  still can't recall the fall itself.  but i remember the pain. OUCH! 

as my ankle swelled to the size of an apple attached to the bottom of my leg, my friend and i giggled and talked about this episode of "i shouldn't be alive" that we were now living, lol, while our fast friend went to get a car.  we watched the sun rise, talked about how we could start a fire with my headlamp, and what if we have to pee (as the river rushed along the other side of the road). 

after a trip to visit the doc. we know it's a bad sprain, rest, ice and elevation.  re-evaluation if a week goes by without some improvement.

through it all, the part is was most upset about, was missing those early morning runs.  wait, have i gone around the bend?  is the pain going to my brain?  the meds?  no, i think i just became a real runner.