All runners have bad days. No matter what level of skill or experience you're at, there's that one awful run that trumps all others. As a clutz with weak ankles, I haven't been the most graceful runner over my high school, and now college, career. Tripping on a sprinkler head, stumbling over a curb, or rolling my ankle on a root are all normal and expected on runs. However, this past Tuesday, I fell like I have never fallen before, and I somehow lived to tell the tale.
You're probably expecting a story about me almost falling off a cliff or falling into a trap set by the Greenville clowns or something, but my fall didn't come with an entertaining back story.
It was just a normal trail run on a normal day at Furman University. I had slept through my 7:00 AM scheduled long run for the day, so I was left to finish the mileage on my own. Long story short, I made a couple of wrong turns and ended up on an abandoned road on the edge of campus, tripped over a metal cable meant to keep cars off the road, not runners, and fell hands and face first onto the concrete.
After getting up and running it off, I realized it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I hadn't lost any teeth, my eyes and nose were still intact, I could feel only a couple of scrapes on my face and I only felt a small pain in my wrist. After making it back to my dorm, inspecting the damage on my face, and taking a shower I still needed to clean my cuts up. The last thing I wanted was a face full of scars.
After my two friends fixed me up, dinner was the top priority. One thing to expect is the range of reactions you'll receive from your friends. Some will feel bad while others will just make fun of you until you heal. And this continued throughout the next couple of days. You can expect eating, smiling and laughing to become painful, which is great. You can also expect to overreact your injuries, and waste money getting an x-ray, thinking your wrist is broken or fractured when its only a minor sprain, also known as "it's a bruise, suck it up."
You can expect sympathy from your Instagram followers and Snapchat friends when you post a picture or upload a story. Attention is always great. As an athlete, you can expect a week full of disappointment because you literally can't do anything. With a hurt wrist, I couldn't swim, I couldn't ride a bike, I could barely turn a doorknob, and the only thing left was to just go on another run, which was the last thing I wanted to do. You can expect the "are you okay?" or "should I drive up to South Carolina to help you?" texts from your mom.
With all that you can expect from a running catastrophe like this, I guess the moral of the story is, if you fall down during a run, try not to land on your face. Or get back up and run again, whichever.
