Who says you're not worth it?

Yes that's a little bit o bubble gum pop music by Selena Gomez, girlfriend of the Biebs. No I don't have it on my ipod, but since I forgot my ipod in the car this day, it was the only song buzzing through my head. And hey, we're worth it!

It seems every time I say I've done my last outside run I get another one, so let's hope that pattern holds. It was gorgeous in Scottsdale this Memorial Day so I did a mountain desert trail near my house.

I ran probably 1/3 of the way up, a little over 2 miles. Then I decided to run the whole way down. Its an exhilerating and sometimes quite steep, rocky trail. I was feeling like quite the hero passing people on my way down navigating the narrow bumpy path. In my head I'm writing this blog post about how this is sort of like Frogger, jumping onto and over rocks at high speed. I started thinking how difficult, if not impossible this would be for someone less agile than I, someone not in such good physical condition. I wondered what I would do if I turned an ankle and fell. I'd probably have to wait for that guy I just passed to help me off the mountain or . . .

BAM. It happened that quick. My ankle turned and I was flying towards the earth. I could feel my reflexes responding to catch me, and one by one my already exhausted muscles failed, sending me crashing to the ground and skidding on hands and knees. Expletives flying, I stumbled back up almost immediately and started running (hobbling) again so as to avoid the attention of aforementioned guy. After about 200 yards I stopped to take inventory of my injuries:
Left ankle - sore
Right knee - bloody and aching
Left knee - road rash
Right palm - rock hole
Left palm - burning
Pride - wounded

I sighed in disgust and started jogging slowly again, convinced I can still make it to the bottom. After all, I have already mentally written my blog post about how I ran all 2 miles down the trail. After passing another group of hikers whom I had to ask to move aside to let me by, my already-weakened ankle buckled and again and I'm crashing to the earth. Fortunately this time I caught myself with my hands, although its still an embarassingly loud commotion. I hopped up and continued walking quickly, so as to distance myself from that last group of hikers. Their jovial chatter had gone silent. With my tail between my legs and freshly humbled, I walked the last half mile to my car.

Now, several hours later and after a hot shower, I'm in bed stiff and aching. Ankle, knee, and oddly enough, left butt cheek quite painful. Thank goddess tomorrow is a scheduled rest day, as there's no telling how bad it will be after sleeping. But, I think mostly its my pride that's wounded.