9-28-07 - OUCH

Injury - knee - hurts.

I ran the Rails-to-Trails again tonight. I planned on going 8 miles. The first half of the run was interesting - the second half sucked. On the first leg I met another runner head-on, and we were both lined up when we saw each other. I dodged left - he dodged left, I dodged left again - he dodged left again, I dodged to the right - he did too, I dodge right again - he did too, I dodged left - he dodged left, I dodged right - he dodged left - - FINALLY we're not lined up any more. By the time we passed, we were both chuckling. Shortly after that encounter, the music paused between tracks. I was on an area of the trail that is about 2 ft below the road level, and an older beat up car was approaching me head on (on the road - not gunning for me), and I heard this odd skittering noise. It had an oddly, but distinctive rotational rasp to it, and I starting looking around wildly trying to find the odd noise (that was obviously getting closer to me rapidly - at about 45 mph). The oncoming car had lost the plastic hubcap cover in the curve from the driver's side of the car and it was still spinning and skipping along the asphalt behind the car, it arced towards the trail, and passed by me about halfway between the roadway and the trail, then continued to arc around and get grip on the grass and trail top until it had hooked around and was no coming back towards me - kind of like back spinning a checkers piece on a kitchen floor (insert childhood memory flashback here). It was interesting watching the physics of the situation unfold.


I got to the 3.25 mile mark, and was still feeling pretty stoked about the remaining .75 miles to the turnaround. It was starting to get darker (and cooler...scratch that - colder), then - in the words of Don McClean - The music died. My MP3 rolled over and died - I hadn't charged it for about a week or more. I knew as soon as the sound went out, what had happened - and I knew I had at least half an hour of listening to myself breath.

Odd self commentary note/observation - When I'm running, I LOVE to observe my surroundings in every way possible. I love the feel of changing terrain under my feet - changes in asphalt to concrete, softness of grass/loam, the crunch of dried leaves, or the slickness of pine needles. I love observing the changes in light as the sun rises or goes down - the changes in hue color of the surroundings, the speckled patches of sunlight on the ground as is slides between the tree branches, the tricky shadows of what MIGHT be looking at me through the trees. I love tasting the change in the air as the evening wears onward - increases in moisture, rising/falling temps on my tongue (odd one, I know). I love the smells - good and bad - that I encounter: the trees, the animals, the car exhaust, the water, even the roadkill, and trash fish on the banks. BUT - When the background music goes away - it's like I'm being tortured listening to myself breath. I still enjoy hearing more on the run, but without music or cadence, I feel my running fall out of rhythm, it feels like my form falls apart, and mentally it seems like more work to make each step (whereas, with music on a good run, sometime it just feels like my legs are on autopilot, and I'm just there to keep my torso balanced).


I resigned myself to slogging onward to the 4 mile turnaround, but before I got to the next quarter mile marker, the trail got much more desolate - no roadside visibility - darkness and bad juju. Then someone spoke to me out of the encroaching darkness, and he said "Turn around". But he had a VERY thick accent, and it just sound like - WOOF! WOOF!

I looked through the trees and never actually saw the dog. I could see a child playing on the trampoline in the adjacent yard. I figured it was a family dog, but from the sound of the bark, it may have been the family horse. I decided that since I didn't have any mace/pepper spray, and it was getting dark, and there were kids it might feel the need to 'protect' - I was better off just turning back. In hindsight, it was probably best that my MP3 player died. I turned back and was running parallel to a man on a bike - he called to two women that I passed to avoid the dog - sounded like there may have been 'history' there.

So, I'm trucking on , when mother nature starts calling me (did I mention I'm still drinking 8+ glasses of water a day), but I figured I could wait until I got home. Remember, no music - everything is amplified because I'm not distracted. The run is not nearly as fun as it started out. 2.5 miles to go - still gotta pee. 2.25 miles - still gotta. 2 miles - still gotta - and the bouncing isn't helping- it's getting darker - you see where this is going.

I pulled of the trail into a darkened and abandoned area and 'answer the call', BUT - as I'm making my way back to the trail , I mis-step and I feel 'the twinge' in my right knee. It hurt, not badly, but it hurt. I started off again, but more slowly. As I ran the aching lessened, but when I stopped at the car, it flowed back. I stretched really well and went home.

Sat morning, I knew something wasn't right.




Interesting thing that flashed into my head as I started running the R2T route - Linky Linky
The final conclusion has been debunked, but still interesting.