Some Days Are Like That

Some days things just work. You wake up alert and energized. You feel fit and fantastic your whole run. You finish strong and proud.

Other days are not meant to be.

This morning I went out for a run. I wandered a new path near the burnt forest. It was a nice wide [unused] dirt road. I didn’t have a lot of time planned for the run…just an easy 20min before I had to get home to get ready for work.

15min into the run I was distracted by something moving in the bush beside me. A cat? Something cool? I scanned the bush to see what it was, which was my mistake. My toe hit a rock and suddenly I was stumbling in slow motion to the  ground. I slid along the hard-packed dirt, then rolled on my back to assess the damage.

None. I can’t even say there was damage to my pride, since I was out there with just the dog as witness (who was, I shall say, very confused but happy to see me at face-level with him). Still, I decided it was time to head back.

On the way back I saw another dog owner in the park, so I leashed up Brizzy so we could run past him. Unfortunately, only two of his dogs were on leash. The “friendly” one was off-leash and approached us in a very stiff-legged, less than friendly way. Being a much larger dog than mine, Brizzy and I stopped running and waited for the “friendly” dog to approach while the owner frantically tried calling her back, to no avail. The dog came up to us and cautiously sniffed Brizzy, at which point she seemed to relax enough for us to continue on our way, so we did.

I was feeling better at that point and decided I could loop around to make the full 20min I’d initially planned. Just as I was about to U-turn I saw another dog owner with two little dogs on a leash approaching us. Brizzy also saw them, and went bonkers trying to go say hello to the two little mites. This resulted in me having to drag him on his leash as I tried to run the last couple minutes home. In the effort of turning and tugging on his leash, I stepped on another rock and – don’t ask me how – I pinched a nerve in my big toe. This has never happened to me before, but suddenly I found myself limping as my poor toe went into unhappy spasms. Such a small body part to feel so debilitating!

I gave up. I walked home and called the run finished. I’m happy to report no lingering damage from either my fall or my weird pinched nerve on the toe. I just had to laugh. Because some days…some days are like that.