A stumble, a tumble and some trouble on a morning run

Fall seven times, stand up eight.  ~Japanese Proverb

I frequently-regularly-often trip while reaching for my high ideals.  Then I giggle, or cry, and get back up.  ~Erika Harris

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I get knocked down… But I get up again - You're never going to keep me down - -Chumbawamba 

I am a huge fan of 'falling down and getting up' quotes and analogies. In fact they pop up in my blog all the time - I am all about "not being afraid to fall" and 'it's the great man' who keeps getting up and all that jazz. Of-course, I love the metaphor of it but the reality? Well. Yesterday I literally fell. on my face - actually on my palms and the somehow on the back of my shoulder.

It was a beautiful brisk morning and with the opportunity to run outside I was going to take it. I've been doing a lot of tread running lately because it's been dark when I've had time to run and my neighborhood probably isn't the safest to run around in after dark…

So I was taking that nice outdoor run. And I was cooking. I could feel myself running FAST I even was passing other runners up and I was poised to clock a winning run.

Part of the hazard of my neighborhood is steepish hills, uneven sidewalks, dodging cars, etc. I'm particularly careful to watch my footing on the hills and sidewalks because they can be tough.

I thought I was doing a good job paying attention. Really I did. But somehow the toe of my shoe caught a raised sidewalk crack on the way down a steepish hill and I found myself in that dreaded moment of OH SH!T and down I went. A woman tried to help me up who didn't think I tripped but was having a heart attack. LOL. 

I was banged up, scraped bruised arse, scraped bloody palms, sore wrist and a bleeding shoulder but do you know what I did?

I got up. And I kept on running.

I have to say that this was a new thing for me and pretty unexpected. The old me would've sat down, cried over my bleeding, cursed my bad luck, called my hubby and called it a day. But all that Ironman watching made me want to 'finish' even just this little training run. I wanted to finish strong.

As far as falls go, this was a great one. I mean, klutzy me was long over-due a tumble instead of crying my way home, I celebrated. I fell down onto concrete running fast downhill and my knees, ankles, feet, hips and legs were still in perfect working order. I didn't chip a tooth or break a bone. A few flesh wounds? Eh. Plenty of athletes have gone thru worse.  I was capable of running the way home.

And I did.

My final time on my ipod was 3 mi for 10:02 mile. That's an AWESOME time for me. And that was with falling and running much slower that last half a mile. I'm bummed because my NIKE+ for some reason didn't upload the run and now it's lost so I can't see the splits and what kind of pace I was holding for those first two miles but they must've been pretty fast (for me.)

Trail running is probably not for me. I can't even navigate pavement… but in any case -

I am kinda happy about the fall - I learned something about myself. I'm stronger than I think. And I'm proud that I fell and got back up again and I'm eternally grateful to the running universe that I wasn't seriously hurt.

Have you ever tripped during a run? 

XO

Jen

PS: I am no hero - if i thought or even had an inkling that running would've injured something seriously or if something was in red-alert pain, I would've called hubby and been shuttled home - no shame in taking care of yourself appropriately either. You can always 'get back up' another day.