More & More Like Myself....And Bloody Parts to Show for It.

Yep. I am certainly feeling more and more like myself these days. I readily admit I had been in some sort of hazy fog for the past year or so but I am slowly getting back to being me.  There are a number of things that are uniquely me...5 Mile Style if you will.  First thing being last minute racing. I once was known for my procrastination in registering for races, often deciding the night before, showing up race morning, registering at the last minute, and running.  Second being my Signature Pose, or on Instagram #Amandapose (feel free to give me your best Amanda Pose and hashtag it!).  And the third thing that makes me ME is my tendency to crash and burn....big time.

Last night I headed out on a new route. In the dark. With no head lamp. Hashtag FAIL. The only thing that was not completely stupid is that I was not alone. I'm not completely stupid.  It was familiar territory for my newest running buddy so I wasn't too overly concerned.

This particular run made me think of my running days, back in 2008, when I first started running with RED. She was faster than me. Much faster than me. But she continued to run with me. She didn't give up. And slowly I caught up with her, it only took her getting some stress fractures to slow her down...Ahem! But after she healed she came back to her speedy pace and we were evenly matched. Anyway, my running buddy last night was quite a bit faster than me but I kept up (about 10 or more steps behind) as best I could.

Nearing the home stretch we were running on the side of the road, into traffic. Ahead I saw a car coming and behind it a motorcycle. Neither made much of an effort to cross the center line to give us some room so I decided to play it safe and hop off the shoulder an into the ditch. I felt my feet hit the grass and then one more step and my foot did not make contact with the earth when it should have....a hole!!! I had stepped into a hole! I saw my life flash before my eyes....No wait, it was the headlight of the oncoming motorcycle!

As I fell I made some sort of girly holler....and then my elbow caught the side of the pavement, my palm smacked down, my knees scraped on the side of the road. Everything about it was awful. As I stared at the motorcycle I did some sort of roll so I would roll off the side of the road and into the ditch and not get hit by the motorcycle. Although I think I'd rather get hit by a motorcycle than a car. It would have been bad for both of us though.

The motorcycle kept going. I'm not sure if he saw me almost die or not....but I laid there and did a quick inventory of my body. I was alive. Good. I could feel my legs...and my knees were burning. Good.  I held my arms up and could move them and didn't think any bones were sticking out. Good.

Then I just rolled over and laid there.

My running buddy ran up and and helped me up. I'm sure I gave quite a scare. I was later told that I resembled an armadillo for a second, with arms and legs everywhere....Story of my life. 

We didn't have much farther to go, less than a mile. So I stood up, brushed myself off, felt the familiar warmth of blood, gross, and resolved myself to being a bloody mess, and ran.

Once we got back I could actually see the damage in the light. It could have been worse. I could have been roadkill but I'd say given the circumstances I'll take hamburger any day.

**VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

I had put my ID in my pocket, you know...just in case. It was bugging me so I took it out and was carrying it.  I later noticed that the back was scraped so badly that much of the lettering was rubbed off on the side and I had a small scrape and bruise in the shape of a square on the same side as my bunged up elbow. The ID card no doubt saved my hand. 

 My other hand wasn't so lucky...it got a bit scraped up.

Top picture was last night...bottom pic was this AM....

So of course I had to text J-Ninja immediately to let her know something horrible had happened...plus I just wanted attention and knew she'd give it to me.

So next time....I wear a head lamp. Or maybe I wont run in the dark. Or maybe I stick to routes with sidewalks. I think all of those are good options.

For now...I am happy to be alive and hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight without flashbacks of the motorcycle headlight coming straight for me.

It's good to be back....

On a totally unrelated note, I have been nominated for the Top 100 Health and Fitness Sites for 2013! If you want to cast a vote to get me to a better standing than my current #26 that would be awesome! Just click the HERE then scroll down to the F's...you'll see my outdated and awful picture. =/ And cast your vote!