There Was Blood After All

This time, however, it wasn’t Liam’s blood–this time it was mine.

I went out this morning for my long run, which was to be 10 miles.  It was a great temperature, the humidity was relatively low, and there was enough cloudcover to make for a perfect running day.  I got through the new twists and turns I’d added to the beginning of my route just fine and was feeling good as I crested the longest hill of the route.  Unfortunately as I crested this hill I was so immersed with my inner dialogue (“I just finished the hardest part, it’s all (figuratively) downhill from here, I feel great!”) that I either didn’t see something on the ground or my ankle simply gave way with no warning or explanation.  I’m still not sure what happened, to be honest.  I was running and feeling good and then all of a sudden I was crumpled on the ground.  When my left ankle gave way, my right knee took the brunt of the impact and I went down hard without catching myself with my hands–I suspect that this was mainly due to the fact that it was a total surprise and my body didn’t have any time to react.  Luckily I was on a sidewalk off to the side of a fairly busy street so people saw what happened.  A woman in a car going the opposite direction slowed down to ask if I was okay, but I told her that I thought I was (because I did think I was–at that point I was too stunned to know what was going on).  At the same time a group of guys were driving by on my side of the road and they pulled over on the sidestreet that I was approaching to ask if they could help.  They were very nice and although I didn’t feel comfortable getting a ride home from three men I didn’t know they let me use a cell phone to call Matt and waited with me until he got there.  I skinned my right knee through my pants (I think that’s the first time I’ve done that in 20 years or so) and my left ankle swelled up immediately so I’ve been icing it all day.  Matt took these pictures right after we got home and just before everything was wrapped in ice:

It’s hard to see here (partly because of the distance but also due to my unfortunate cankle issue), but my left ankle was beginning to swell to about the size of one half of a golf ball:

Side view (there used to be an ankle bone sticking out in front as well as what you can still see in back here):

The knee:

At least next week our long run is also 10 miles (we increase mileage during the week this time) so I’ll get another shot at it if everything heals well.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!